Ifi?    335 


we 


•     ' 

i 


10' 


Hi! 


GIFT    OF 
EVGENE  MEYER, Jit 


W    ^T 


h 
Is 

£  § 

"    DJ 
fi    O 


a  I 

02 

w  w 

K  H 


<  o 

«  K 

M  rv 
02 

§  § 

W  p 


HOW  WE  ELECTED 

LINCOLN 

PERSONAL 

RECOLLECTIONS  OF  LINCOLN 
AND  MEN  OF  HIS  TIME 

BY 
ABRAM  J.  pITTENHOEFER 

A    CAMPAIGNER    FOR    LINCOLN 

IN    I860    AND    A    LINCOLN 

ELECTOR      IN      1864 


HARPER   &  BROTHERS 
NEW     YORK     AND     LONDON 


E:  45-7 

.  I*" 
J34 


BOOKS  ABOUT  LINCOLN 

LINCOLN  AND  THE  SLEEPING  SENTINEL 
By  Lucius  E.  CHITTENDEN 

RECOLLECTIONS    OF    PRESIDENT    LINCOLN 
AND    HIS    ADMINISTRATION 
By  Lucius  E.  CHITTENDEN 

HOW  WE  ELECTED  LINCOLN.     By  A.  3.  DITTENHOEPER 
THE   TOY    SHOP.     By   MARGAIUTA   SBALDING    GERRY 
ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.     By   CHARLES  C.   COFFIN 

REMINISCENCES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
By  ALLEN  THORNDIKE  RICE 

LINCOLN'S  OWN  STORIES.     By  ANTHONY  GROSS 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS,   NEW  YORK 


How  WE  ELECTED  LINCOLN 


Copyright,   1916,   by  Harper  &   Brothers 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 

Published  September,  1916 

H-Q 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  THE  MAN — LINCOLN 1 

II.  LINCOLN'S  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  EAST 14 

III.  How  LINCOLN  WAS  FIRST  NOMINATED 20 

IV.  How  LINCOLN  WAS  FIRST  ELECTED 34 

V.  THE  JOURNEY  TO  THE  CAPITAL 41 

VI.  STORIES  AND  INCIDENTS 47 

VII.  FOUR  YEARS  OF  STRESS  AND  STRAIN 55 

VIII.  THE  RENOMINATION 71 

IX.  THB  CAMPAIGN  OF  1864  .  85 


342894 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  offers  my  personal  recollections  of 
the  immortal  Emancipator,  and  of  the  memorable 
campaigns  of  1860  and  1864,  in  which,  as  a  young 
man,  I  was  actively  engaged. 

In  looking  back  upon  a  life  of  fourscore  years 
I  find  no  prouder  memories  than  those  of  the 
years  1860-65.  They  illumined  my  being,  and 
my  life  became  inspired  through  association  with 
the  immortal  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  great  men 
of  the  anti-slavery  conflict. 

I  am  unwilling  to  allow  these  reminiscences  to 
go  forth  without  giving  credit  to  my  old  friend 
Julius  Chambers,  for  the  valuable  assistance  he 
rendered  in  compiling  them. 


HOW   WE   ELECTED 
LINCOLN 


HOW  WE    ELECTED 
LINCOLN 


THE  MAN — LINCOLN 

CIRCUMSTANCES  brought  to  me  personal 
knowledge  of  Mr.  Lincoln  for  nearly  four 
years.  I  had  frequent  interviews  with  him,  and 
so  was  able  to  form  a  well-considered  estimate 
of  the  great  Emancipator's  character  and  per 
sonality. 

Born  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  of  Demo 
cratic  pro-slavery  parents,  I  was  brought  in  early 
youth  to  New  York;  and  although  imbued  with  the 
sentiments  and  antipathies  of  my  Southern  en 
vironment,  I  soon  became  known  as  a  Southerner 
with  Northern  principles.  At  that  time  there  were 
many  Northern  men  with  Southern  principles. 

The  city  of  New  York,  as  I  discovered  upon 
reaching  the  age  of  observation,  was  virtually  an 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

annex  of  the  South,  the  New  York  merchants 
having  extensive  and  very  profitable  business  rela 
tions  with  the  merchants  south  of  the  Mason  and 
Dixon  line. 

The  South  was  the  best  customer  of  New  York. 
I  often  said  in  those  days,  "Our  merchants  have 
for  sale  on  their  shelves  their  principles,  together 
with  their  merchandise." 

An  amusing  incident  occurred  to  my  knowl 
edge  which  aptly  illustrates  the  condition  of 
things  in  this  pro-slavery  city.  A  Southerner  came 
to  a  New  York  merchant,  who  was  a  dealer  in 
brushes  and  toilet  articles,  and  offered  him  a  large 
order  for  combs.  The  New  York  merchant,  as  it 
happened,  was  a  Quaker,  but  this  was  not  known 
to  the  Southerner.  The  latter  made  it  a  con 
dition,  in  giving  this  large  order,  that  the  Quaker 
merchant  should  exert  all  his  influence  in  favor  of 
the  South.  The  Southerner  wished  to  do  some 
thing  to  offset  the  great  agitation  headed  by  the 
abolitionists  which  had  been  going  on  for  years  in 
the  North  for  the  extinction  of  slavery  in  the 
South.  The  Quaker  merchant  coolly  replied  that 
the  South  would  have  to  go  lousy  for  a  long 
time  before  he  would  sell  his  combs  to  them  under 
any  such  conditions. 

Another  occurrence  that  took  place  at  an  earlier 
period  still  further  illumines  this  intense  pro- 
slavery  feeling.  When  Wendell  Phillips,  to  my 


THE    MAN  — LINCOLN 

mind  one  of  the  greatest  orators  of  America,  de 
livered  a  radical  and  brilliant  anti-slavery  speech 
at  the  old  Tabernacle,  situated  in  Broadway  below 
Canal  Street,  the  hall  was  filled  with  pro-slavery 
shouters;  they  rotten-egged  Phillips  in  the  course 
of  his  address.  With  some  friends  I  was  present 
and  witnessed  this  performance. 

At  nineteen  I  was  wavering  in  my  fidelity  to  the 
principles  of  the  Democratic  party,  which,  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  was  largely  in  favor  of  slavery. 

I  had  just  graduated  from  Columbia  College, 
which  was  then  situated  in  what  is  now  known 
as  College  Place,  between  Chambers  and  Murray 
streets.  At  that  time  many  of  our  prominent 
and  wealthy  families  lived  in  Chambers,  Murray, 
and  Warren  streets,  and  I  frequently  attended 
festivities  held  by  the  parents  of  the  college  boys 
in  the  old-fashioned  mansions  which  lined  those 
thoroughfares. 

Soon  after  leaving  college  I  became  a  student 
in  the  law  office  of  Benedict  &  Boardman,  occupy 
ing  offices  in  Dey  Street,  near  Broadway.  At 
that  time  the  late  John  E.  Parsons,  a  distinguished 
member  of  the  New  York  bar,  was  the  managing 
clerk;  and  Charles  O'Connor,  the  head  of  the  New 
York  bar  in  that  generation,  and  who,  in  later 
years,  ran  as  an  Independent  candidate  for  the 
Presidency,  was  connected  with  that  firm  as 

counsel. 

3 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

Sitting  one  day  at  my  desk,  I  took  up  a  news 
paper,  and  the  debate  between  Judah  P.  Benja 
min,  the  rabid  but  eloquent  pro-slavery  Senator 
from  Louisiana,  and  Benjamin  F.  Wade,  the  free- 
soil  Senator  from  Ohio,  attracted  my  attention. 

Benjamin  had  made  a  strong  address  in  defense 
of  slavery  when  Wade  arose  and  replied.  He  be 
gan  his  reply  with  some  bitter  and  memorable 
words,  words  which  completely  changed  my 
political  views. 

"I  have  listened  with  intense  interest,"  said 
he,  "as  I  always  do  to  the  eloquent  speech  of  my 
friend,  the  Senator  from  Louisiana — an  Israelite 
with  Egyptian  principles." 

My  father,  who  was  a  prominent  merchant  of 
New  York  in  those  days,  and  very  influential  with 
the  German  population,  had  urged  me  to  become 
a  Democrat,  warning  me  that  a  public  career,  if 
I  joined  the  Republican  party,  would  be  impossible 
in  the  city  of  New  York.  I  felt  that  he  was  right 
in  that  view,  as  the  party  was  in  a  hopeless  mi 
nority,  without  apparent  prospect  of  ever  being 
able  to  elect  its  candidates. 

This  was  absolutely  plain  from  the  fact  that 
Tammany  Hall  controlled  the  entire  election 
machinery  in  this  city,  there  being  no  law  at  that 
time  which  required  the  registration  of  voters  be 
fore  Election  Day.  Moreover,  the  inspectors  of 
election  were  Tammany  heelers,  without  any  Re- 


THE    MAN  — LINCOLN 

publican  representation  on  the  election  boards. 
In  consequence,  fraudulent  voting  prevailed  to  a 
large  extent. 

And  yet  my  convictions  were  irrevocably 
changed  by  the  reading  of  Wade's  speech  in  answer 
to  Benjamin.  It  struck  me  with  great  force  that 
the  Israelite  Benjamin,  whose  ancestors  were  en 
slaved  in  Egypt,  ought  not  to  uphold  slavery  in 
free  America,  and  could  not  do  so  without  bringing 
disgrace  upon  himself. 

Having  convinced  my  father  that  slavery  should 
no  longer  be  tolerated,  he  abandoned  his  old  polit 
ical  associations,  cast  his  vote  for  Lincoln  and 
Hamlin,  and  remained  a  Republican  until  his 
death. 

Several  years  later,  if  I  may  anticipate,  William 
M.  Tweed,  who  had  not  yet  become  "Boss,"  but 
who  had  great  and  powerful  influence  in  Tam 
many  Hall,  besought  me  to  join  Tammany,  calling 
my  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  power  of  the 
Democratic  party  was  supreme  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  and  that  the  organization  needed  some  one 
to  influence  the  German  element. 

He  gave  me  his  assurance  that  if  I  came  into 
Tammany  Hall  I  should  receive  prompt  recogni 
tion,  and  in  a  few  years  undoubtedly  would  become 
judge  of  the  Supreme  Court;  later  on  I  might  go 
still  higher  up.  I  thanked  Mr.  Tweed  for  his 
friendly  interest  in  me,  but  told  him  that  no  polit- 

5 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

ical  preferment  could  induce  me  to  abandon  my 
convictions  and  lead  me  to  support  slavery. 

When  Tweed  became  the  absolute  "Boss"  of 
Tammany,  some  years  later,  he  renewed  his  re 
quest  that  I  should  join  Tammany  Hall.  Recur 
ring  to  his  previous  promise,  he  again  urged  me  to 
become  a  member  of  his  organization;  again  I 
refused. 

One  can  hardly  appreciate  to-day  what  it 
meant  to  me,  a  young  man  beginning  his  career 
in  New  York,  to  ally  myself  with  the  Republican 
party.  By  doing  so,  not  only  did  I  cast  aside  all 
apparent  hope  of  public  preferment,  but  I  also 
subjected  myself  to  obloquy  from  and  ostracism 
by  my  acquaintances,  my  clients,  and  even 
members  of  my  own  family. 

I  was  about  twenty  years  of  age  when  the  first 
Republican  convention  met  at  Pittsburg.  It 
succeeded  the  disruption  of  the  old  Whig  party, 
the  latter  losing  in  public  esteem  on  account  of  its 
indifference  toward  the  slavery  question. 

Gen.  John  C.  Fremont,  known  as  the  Pathfinder, 
was  nominated  for  President,  and  William  L. 
Dayton,  of  New  Jersey,  was  nominated  for  Vice- 
President.  The  appellation  of  Pathfinder  was 
given  to  Fremont  because  in  earlier  years  he  had 
explored  the  then  hardly  known  Western  terri 
tory,  with  the  aid  of  scouts  and  pioneers,  and  had 
indicated  passes  and  routes  through  the  mountains. 


THE    MAN  — LINCOLN 

Though  not  yet  of  age,  I  stumped  for  Fremont 
and  Dayton,  making  many  speeches  during  that 
memorable  campaign,  and  participating  in  several 
barbecues,  which  were  then  the  usual  accompani 
ment  of  a  political  campaign.  I  was  well  received 
in  the  towns  where  I  was  scheduled  to  speak.  A 
military  band  and  a  citizens'  committee  generally 
met  me  at  the  station,  and  escorted  me  through 
the  streets  to  the  hotel  or  private  house  in  which 
it  was  arranged  that  I  should  stay. 

The  thrilling  battle-cry  of  that  campaign  was, 
"Free  Speech,  Free  Soil,  Free  Men,  and  Fre 
mont!"  These  words  were  shouted  at  all  public 
meetings  and  in  all  public  processions,  and  were 
received  with  the  wildest  enthusiasm.  Indeed,  the 
cry  was  a  stump  speech  in  itself;  it  still  thrills  me 
as  I  write.  Like  the  "Marseillaise,"  it  was  a  shout 
for  freedom  set  to  music. 

Fremont  had  served  by  appointment  for  a  brief 
period  as  Senator  from  the  State  of  California. 
His  popularity  as  a  candidate  was  aided  by  the 
fact  that  his  wife,  Jessie  Benton  Fremont,  was 
the  brilliant  daughter  of  Thomas  H.  Benton,  who 
for  thirty  years  was  a  Senator  from  Missouri;  and 
who,  in  later  years,  published  his  well-known  book, 
Thirty  Years  in  the  United  States  Senate.  In  the 
later  part  of  his  career,  Benton,  who  had  been  a 
strong  supporter  of  the  "peculiar  institution"  in 
the  South,  became  an  opponent  of  the  extension 

7 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

of  slavery  in  new  territory.  Mrs.  Fremont  was  an 
important  figure  in  that  campaign;  her  name  was 
always  mentioned  with  great  respect  by  the 
opposition  speakers. 

Early  in  the  Civil  War,  President  Lincoln,  in 
appreciation  of  Fremont's  splendid  services  in  the 
exploration  of  the  West  and  because  he  had  been 
the  first  Republican  candidate  for  President,  ap 
pointed  him  commander  of  a  portion  of  the  Federal 
forces.  On  August  31,  1861,  Fremont  issued  a 
military  order  emancipating  the  slaves  of  all 
persons  in  arms  against  the  United  States.  This 
action  did  not  meet  with  Mr.  Lincoln's  approval; 
he  considered  it  premature,  and  perhaps  he  was 
right  in  that  view;  accordingly  he  directed  that 
the  proclamation  should  be  withdrawn. 

I  was  afterward  reconciled  to  Fremont's  defeat 
in  1856,  for  the  reason  that,  had  he  been  elected, 
the  probability  is  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 
greatest  figure  in  American  history,  never  would 
have  attained  the  Presidency. 

Here  it  may  be  of  interest  to  record  that  in  the 
convention  of  1856,  which  nominated  Fremont, 
Lincoln  received  one  hundred  and  ten  votes  for 
the  Vice-presidency,  while  Mr.  Dayton,  the  suc 
cessful  candidate,  had  only  a  few  more  votes. 
Nevertheless,  Lincoln  did  not  achieve  a  national 
reputation  until  he  engaged  in  the  memorable 
Lincoln  and  Douglas  debates  in  Illinois, 


THE   MAN  — LINCOLN 

During  the  Fremont  campaign  I  sometimes 
spoke  in  German,  especially  in  towns  in  which 
there  was  a  large  Teutonic  population,  and  I  was 
hoping  that  I  might  influence  the  German  pop 
ulation  of  New  York,  two-thirds  of  which  had 
allied  itself  with  the  Democratic  party. 

The  most  memorable  event  in  Mr.  Lincoln's 
career,  after  the  Fremont  campaign,  was  his  ap 
pearance  in  joint  debate  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
then  known  as  the  "Little  Giant,"  during  the 
months  of  August,  September,  and  October,  1858. 
The  challenge  came  from  Lincoln,  in  a  letter  of 
July  24th,  proposing  the  joint  meetings.  Seven 
debates  were  subsequently  agreed  upon  to  take 
place  in  Ottawa,  Freeport,  Jonesboro,  Charles 
ton,  Galesburg,  Quincy,  and  Alton.  These  de 
bates  attracted  great  attention  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  and  were  fully  reported  by  the  New 
York  and  Chicago  newspapers.  Robert  H.  Hitt, 
who  afterward  became  charge  d'affaires  at  Paris, 
and  in  later  years  chairman  of  the  House  Com 
mittee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  reported  stenographic- 
ally  all  the  speeches,  and  gave  me  a  vivid  impres 
sion  of  them. 

In  the  opening  address  at  Ottawa,  the  "Little 
Giant"  explained  clearly  what  he  meant  by  the 
doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty,  which  he  had  ad 
vocated  in  the  United  States  Senate  for  many 
years,  and  which  by  the  Free  Soil  people  of  the 

9 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

North  was  looked  upon  as  merely  a  blind  to  cover 
the  extension  of  slavery  in  free  territory. 

Douglas  had  introduced  bills  giving  Statehood 
to  the  Territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  and 
commenting  upon  these  bills  he  said  it  was  not 
intended  to  legislate  slavery  into  any  State  or 
Territory  or  to  exclude  it  therefrom,  but  "to  leave 
the  people  thereof  entirely  free  to  form  and  regu 
late  their  domestic  institutions  as  they  thought 
best,  subject  only  to  the  Federal  Constitution." 

Now  in  the  North  the  agitation  to  prevent  the 
extension  of  slavery  in  those  States  was  intense; 
indeed,  as  the  question  involved  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  which  prohibited  the  ex 
tension  of  slavery  in  newly  acquired  territory  and 
which  had  been  on  the  statute-book  for  many 
years,  it  became  the  great  issue  of  the  Republican 
party. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  speeches  were  filled  with  quaint 
phrases  and  interpolated  jests.  The  latter  always 
were  apt  and  calculated  to  keep  his  hearers, 
friendly  or  antagonistic,  in  a  good  humor.  In  his 
Ottawa  answer  to  Douglas's  opening  speech  Mr. 
Lincoln  asserted  that  any  attempt  to  show  that 
he  (Lincoln)  advocated  "perfect  social  and  polit 
ical  equality  between  the  negro  and  the  white 
man  is  only  a  specious  and  fantastic  arrangement 
of  words,  by  which  one  might  prove  a  horse- 
chestnut  was  a  chestnut  horse." 

10 


THE    MAN  — LINCOLN 

All  Lincoln  demanded  for  the  negro  was  the 
right  to  eat  the  bread  which  his  own  hands  had 
earned  without  leave  of  anybody. 

Lincoln  was  fond  of  quoting  from  the  Bible 
without  mentioning  the  fact,  whereas  Douglas  was 
often  caught  differing  with  the  Scriptures.  Nat 
urally  Lincoln  took  advantage  of  his  political 
opponent's  lack  of  Biblical  knowledge. 

Judge  Douglas,  in  the  debate  of  July  16,  1858, 
said:  "Mr.  Lincoln  tells  you  in  his  speech  made 
in  Springfield,  'A  house  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand.  I  believe  this  Government  cannot 
endure  permanently  half  slave,  half  free.  I  do 
not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved.  I  do  not 
expect  the  house  to  fall;  but  I  do  expect  it  to  cease 
to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all 
the  other.' " 

Judge  Douglas  then  proceeded  to  use  as  his 
keynote  of  his  speech  Lincoln's  sentence:  "A 
house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand,"  argu 
ing  eloquently  and  apparently  quite  unaware  of 
its  Biblical  origin. 

Referring  to  Judge  Douglas's  criticism  of  his 
expression,  "A  house  divided  against  itself  can 
not  stand,"  Lincoln  asked:  "Does  the  judge  say 
it  can  stand?  If  he  does,  then  it  is  a  question  of 
veracity  not  between  him  and  me,  but  between 
the  judge  and  an  authority  of  somewhat  higher 

character." 

11 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

Lincoln's  fondness  for  scriptural  stories  and  in 
cidents  is  further  illustrated  when,  having  ap 
pointed  a  man  to  a  judgeship  who  had  been  sus 
pected  of  having  been  connected  with  a  certain 
secret  organization  which  was  opposed  to  Lincoln's 
renomination,  he  was  remonstrated  with  and  his 
magnanimity  criticized.  He  replied:  "I  suppose 

Judge ,  having  been  disappointed,  did  behave 

badly,  but  I  have  scriptural  reasons  for  appointing 
him.  When  Moses  was  on  Mount  Sinai,  getting 
a  commission  for  Aaron,  that  same  Aaron  was  at 
the  foot  of  the  mountain  making  a  false  god  for 
the  people  to  worship.  Yet  Aaron  got  the  com 
mission." 

As  an  answer  to  Douglas's  doctrine  of  popular 
sovereignty  Lincoln  said  that  he  could  not  under 
stand  why,  in  the  Territories,  any  man  should  be 
"obliged  to  have  a  slave  if  he  did  not  want  one. 
And  if  any  man  wants  slaves,"  argued  Lincoln, 
"all  other  citizens  in  the  Territory  have  no  way  of 
keeping  that  one  man  from  holding  them." 

He  denounced  fiercely  the  scheme  of  the  South 
ern  slaveholders  to  annex  Cuba  as  a  plan  to  in 
crease  the  slave  territory.  It  may  be  recalled 
that  the  conference  at  Ostend  during  Buchanan's 
administration  was  held  for  that  purpose. 

Horace  White  has  published  an  admirable  de 
scription  of  his  tour  with  these  debaters.  In  a 

parade   at   Charleston   thirty-two   young   ladies, 

12 


THE    MAN  — LINCOLN 

representing  States  of  the  Union,  carried  banners. 
This  "float"  was  followed  by  a  handsome  young 
woman  on  horseback,  holding  aloft  a  burgee  in 
scribed:  "Kansas,  I  will  be  free!"  Upon  the  side 
of  the  float  was  the  legend: 

Westward  the  star  of  empire  takes  its  way; 

We  girls  link  on  to  Lincoln,  as  our  mothers  did  to  Clay. 


Senator  Douglas  charged  that  these  debates 
had  been  instituted  f oi\  the  purpose  of  .carrying 
Lincoln  kito  the  tMted  States  Senate.  Although 
Lincoln  dehied  this^he  Derifeocrats  believed  the>e 
was  some  foundation  for  the  assumption. 

The  meeting  at  Dayton  was  a  particularly  bois 
terous  one.  Elijah  Parish  Lovejoy,  a  brother  of 
the  distinguished  Owen  Lovejoy,  who  was  very 
prominent  in  the  abolitionist  agitation,  had  been 
assassinated  there  nineteen  years  before  for  his 
anti-slavery  opinions,  but  neither  of  the  speakers 
referred  to  the  fact. 

To  show  the  pro-slavery  sentiment  that  domi 
nated  the  entire  Government  at  that  time,  the 
famous  dictum  of  Chief -Justice  Taney  in  the  Dred 
Scott  decision  that  "a  negro  had  no  rights  that  a 
white  man  was  bound  to  respect,"  may  appropri 
ately  be  recalled. 


II 

LINCOLN'S  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  EAST 

A  BRAHAM  LINCOLN  made  his  first  public 
X~V  appearance  in  New  York  at  Cooper  Union 
on  the  night  of  the  27th  of  February,  1860.  My 
anti-slavery  attitude  was  strengthened  by  that 
wonderful  speech. 

My  acquaintance  with  Abraham  Lincoln  began 
on  the  afternoon  of  that  memorable  day.  I  was 
presented  to  him  at  his  hotel,  and  I  venture  to 
hope  that  I  made  some  impression  on  him.  This 
may  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  at  an  early 
age  I  had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  Republican 
campaigns,  and  had  followed  with  close  attention 
the  Lincoln  and  Douglas  debates  as  they  were  re 
ported  in  the  New  York  journals.  Consequently 
I  could  talk  intelligently  of  national  politics. 

I  was  on  hand  early  at  the  Institute  that  night, 
and,  having  a  seat  upon  the  platform,  I  was  able  to 
observe  the  manner  of  the  orator  as  well  as  to 
hear  every  word  he  uttered.  The  way  in  which 
he  carried  himself  before  the  large  audience  that 

14 


INTRODUCTION   TO   THE    EAST 

filled  every  nook  and  corner  of  that  underground 
hall  is  engraven  on  my  mind.  He  was  a  very 
homely  man.  Indeed,  he  often  referred  to  his 
homeliness  himself.  His  tall,  gaunt  body  was  like 
a  huge  clothed  skeleton.  So  large  were  his  feet 
and  so  clumsy  were  his  hands  that  they  looked 
out  of  proportion  to  the  rest  of  his  figure.  No 
artistic  skill  could  soften  his  features  nor  render 
his  appearance  less  ungainly,  but  after  he  began 
to  talk  he  was  awkwardness  deified. 

In  repose,  as  I  saw  him  on  many  subsequent 
occasions,  his  face  seemed  dull,  but  when  animated 
it  became  radiant  with  vitalized  energy. 

No  textual  report  of  his  Cooper  Institute  ad 
dress  can  possibly  give  any  idea  of  its  great  ora 
torical  merits.  Mr.  Lincoln  never  ranted,  but 
gave  emphatic  emphasis  to  what  he  wished  es 
pecially  to  "put  across"  by  a  slowness  and  marked 
clearness  of  enunciation.  His  voice  was  unpleas 
ant,  almost  rasping  and  shrill  at  first.  Perhaps 
this  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  found  it  necessary 
to  force  it.  A  little  later,  he  seemed  to  control  his 
voice  better,  and  his  earnestness  invited  and  easily 
held  the  attention  of  his  auditors. 

To  summarize  the  seven  thousand  words  spoken 
by  Mr.  Lincoln  on  that  great  occasion  would  be 
a  difficult  task  and  could  not  be  successfully  at 
tempted  in  these  reminiscences.  I  will  only  state 
that  his  theme  was  "slavery  as  the  fathers  viewed 

15 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

it."  Its  delivery  occupied  more  than  an  hour,  its 
entire  purpose  being  to  show  that  the  fathers  of 
the  Republic  merely  tolerated  slavery  where  it 
existed,  since  interference  with  it  would  be  re 
sisted  by  the  South;  moreover,  recognition  of  the 
legality  of  slavery  in  those  States  had  been  the 
inducement  offered  to  them  to  enter  the  Union. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  however,  indicated  that  he  was 
unalterably  and  inflexibly  opposed  to  the  exten 
sion  of  slavery  in  territory  in  which  it  did  not 
exist. 

Mr.  Lincoln  began  with  a  quotation  from  one 
of  Senator  Douglas's  speeches,  in  which  the 
"Little  Giant"  asserted  that  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  understood  the  slavery  question  as 
well  as,  or  better  than,  their  descendants.  He 
brilliantly  traced  the  origin  and  growth  of  democ 
racy  under  the  various  forms  that  preceded  the 
final  adoption  of  the  Constitution. 

As  it  appeared  to  an  abolitionist  in  principle, 
the  speaker  handled  the  slavery  question  some 
what  cautiously,  chiefly  condemning  the  con 
templated  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and 
opposing  the  extension  of  slavery  into  Territories 
and  States  where  it  did  not  exist.  The  appeal  that 
he  made  to  the  reason  and  the  common  sense  of 
the  Southerner  was  forcible.  He  denied  that  the 
Republicans  of  the  North  were  sectional,  or  that 
they  blamed  the  present  generation  of  the  South 

16 


INTRODUCTION   TO   THE    EAST 

for  the  existence  of  slavery.  He  went  out  of  his 
way  to  condemn  the  John  Brown  raid,  asserting 
that  the  Republican  party  had  no  sympathy  with 
that  foolhardy  enterprise.  He  compared  the  John 
Brown  raid  to  the  previous  outbreak  at  South 
ampton,  Virginia,  under  the  negro,  Nat  Turner,  in 
which  sixty  white  people,  mostly  women  and 
children,  were  destroyed.  He  denounced  the  dec 
laration  of  the  Southern  people  that  Northern  anti- 
slavery  men  had  instigated  the  John  Brown  incur 
sion  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  he  showed  that  the 
trial  of  John  Brown  at  Charlestown  proved  the 
allegation  to  be  utterly  fallacious. 

The  sentences  near  the  close  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
address  will  serve  as  the  keynote  upon  which  he 
subsequently  based  his  candidacy  for  the  Presi 
dency  in  opposition  to  the  extremely  radical  anti- 
slavery  views  of  Horace  Greeley  and  William  H. 
Seward. 

"Wrong  as  we  think  slavery,"  said  Lincoln, 
"we  can  afford  to  let  it  alone  where  it  is,  because 
that  much  is  due  to  the  necessity  arising  from  its 
actual  presence  in  the  nation;  but  can  we,  while 
our  votes  will  prevent,  allow  it  to  spread  in  the 
national  Territories  and  to  overrun  us  here  in 
these  free  States?  Let  us  have  faith  that  right 
makes  might,  and  in  that  faith  let  us  dare  to  do 
our  duty  as  we  understand  it." 

The  reception  of  these  closing  words  by  former 

2  17 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

Whigs  and  partially  convinced  Republicans  who 
were  in  the  audience  can  hardly  be  described  as 
enthusiastic.  Many  of  these  men  left  the  audi 
torium  that  night,  as  I  did,  in  a  seriously  thoughtful 
mood. 

Nevertheless,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  congratulated  by 
many  upon  the  "boldness"  of  his  views.  And, 
indeed,  they  seemed  radical  at  a  time  when  nearly 
every  prominent  statesman  of  the  country  was 
"trimming"  on  the  slavery  question.  The  great 
Daniel  Webster  had  ruined  his  political  career 
some  years  previously  by  trying  to  be  "all  things 
to  all  men"  politically. 

When  I  called  at  Mr.  Lincoln's  hotel  the  fol 
lowing  morning,  I  found  Mr.  Lincoln  alone.  The 
shouts  of  approbation  of  the  previous  night  were 
still  ringing  in  my  ears,  but  the  figure  of  the  awk 
ward  Illinoisan  suggested  nothing  in  the  way  of 
public  enthusiasm  or  personal  distinction.  He 
then  and  there  appeared  as  a  plain,  unpretentious 
man.  I  ventured  to  congratulate  him  upon  the 
success  of  his  speech,  and  his  face  brightened. 
"I  am  not  sure  that  I  made  a  success,"  he  said, 
diffidently. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  brief  time  I  was 
with  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  hotel,  together  with  two 
members  of  the  Republican  committee,  there  was 
only  a  general  conversation  about  the  Douglas- 
Lincoln  debates,  and  the  intense  anti-slavery  agi- 

18 


INTRODUCTION    TO    THE    EAST 

tation  prevailing  in  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska 
Territories  and  in  Illinois. 

A  few  days  after  that  epoch-making  speech  a 
prominent  Democratic  acquaintance,  who  had 
often  expressed  to  me  in  language  of  bitterness  his 
hatred  of  all  people  who  opposed  the  South,  as 
sured  me  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  speech  had  made 
him  a  Free-Soiler,  although  he  had  not  believed 
it  possible  that  such  a  change  in  his  views  could 
ever  occur. 

In  subsequent  speeches  throughout  New  Eng 
land  Mr.  Lincoln  went  to  greater  lengths  in  his 
denunciation  of  slavery.  At  Hartford,  on  the 
5th  of  March,  he  denounced  slavery  as  the  enemy 
of  the  free  working-man;  a  day  later,  at  New 
Haven,  he  characterized  slavery  as  "the  snake  in 
the  Union  bed";  at  Norwich,  on  the  ninth  of  that 
month,  he  described  Douglas's  popular  sovereign 
ty  as  "the  sugar-coated  slavery  pill." 

These  later  speeches  greatly  strengthened  the 
anti-slavery  agitation  throughout  the  North,  and 
went  far  to  settle  the  opinions  of  the  voters,  who 
were  wavering  between  Douglas's  popular  sov 
ereignty  and  the  ultra  radicalism  of  Garrison  and 
Phillips. 


Ill 

HOW   LINCOLN  WAS  FIRST  NOMINATED 

THE  Republican  National  Convention  that 
convened  in  Chicago,  May  16,  1860,  proved 
a  complete  refutation  of  the  frequently  expressed 
belief  that  the  new  party  had  died  with  Fremont's 
defeat  in  1856.  Some  of  the  ablest  and  most  dis 
tinguished  men  in  the  country  appeared  as  del 
egates  and  as  candidates  for  nomination.  During 
the  four  years  following  Fremont's  defeat  by 
James  Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania,  former  minister 
to  England,  the  Republican  party  had  been 
strengthened  by  the  affiliation  of  many  Northern 
Democrats  who  were  inclined  to  oppose  the  ex 
tension  of  slavery.  The  struggles  to  exclude  the 
curse  of  slavery  from  Kansas  and  Nebraska  had 
agitated  the  entire  country  during  these  years,  and 
had  brought  many  new  voters  into  the  ranks  of 
the  Republican  party. 

William  H.  Seward  was  admittedly  the  great 
Republican  leader  and  the  ablest  champion  of  his 
party.  His  speech  in  the  United  States  Senate 
on  the  "Irrepressible  Conflict"  had  made  him 

120 


FIRST   NOMINATION 

famous  all  over  the  country,  and  he  was  con 
stantly  talked  of  by  both  friends  and  foes.  At 
least  two-thirds  of  the  delegates  at  the  Chicago 
convention  favored  his  nomination,  and  even  the 
majority  of  the  delegates  from  Illinois,  Lincoln's 
own  State,  while  instructed  tojvote  for  "Honest  ., 
Old  Abe"  as  the  favorite  son,  passively  favored 


In  the  New  York  delegation  was  Tom  Hyer, 
the  noted  champion  prize-fighter  of  his  genera 
tion.  He  bofeFthe  banner  of  the_New  York  City 
Republican  Club,  and  wasan  ardent  supporter  of 
•Sevvurd.  -—Being  a  man  six  feet  two  and  aThalf 
inches  in  height,  he  presented  an  imposing  figure. 

The  defeat  of  Seward's  ambition  was  generally 
ascribed  to  an  unhealed  break  between  Horace 
Greeley,  Thurlow  Weed,  and  himself.  These 
three  men,  all  eminent  in  their  spheres,  consti 
tuted  what  was  known  then  as  the  "Republican 
Triumvirate,"  or  what  would  now  be  called  the 
"Big  Three."  This  breach  occurred  in  Novem 
ber,  1854,  over  five  years  previously.  Greeley  re 
sented  the  injustice  that  he  believed  had  been 
meted  out  to  him,  being  sincerely  of  the  opinion 
that  Senator  Seward  had  deceived  him,  and  this 
unfriendly  feeling  had  fermented  into  a  fully 
developed  hatred. 

His  letter  to  Seward  announcing    "a  dissolu 

tion  of  the  political  firm  of  Seward,  Weed,  and 

21 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

Greeley,  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  junior  partner," 
is  a  part  of  political  history.  It  is  a  long  epistle, 
covering  more  than  five  pages  in  Greeley 's  Recol 
lections  of  a  Busy  Life,  in  which  is  recounted  the 
writer's  career  in  New  York,  from  his  start  as  "a 
poor  young  printer"  to  his  affiliations  with  the 
political  powers  of  the  Empire  State.  While  it 
contains  kindly  words  for  Thurlow  Weed,  it  pro 
claims  the  severance  of  all  relations  with  Seward. 
In  conclusion,  it  acknowledges  acts  of  kindness  by 
his  former  partner  in  politics,  and,  reiterating  that 
"such  acts  will  be  gratefully  remembered,  the 
writer  takes  an  eternal  farewell." 

In  the  stormy  days  preceding  the  Chicago  con 
vention  the  New  York  Tribune's  opposition  to 
Se ward's  nomination  had  been  continuous.  But 
I  have  always  had  an  idea,  based  upon  a  study  of 
the  actual  occurrences  in  the  convention  wjiere  I 
was  a  looker-on,  and  from  my  intimacy  with  Mr. 
GreeleyTthat  the  factor  which  had  the  most  to  do 
with  Seward's  defeat  was  the  fear  of  Henry  S. 
Lanejg£j3ublican  candidate  for  Governor  oTTndi- 
ana,  and  of  Andrew  G.  ^urtin,  Jlepublican  can 
didate  for  GoveFfiOF-oLEennsylvania,  that  Seward 
could  not  carry  these  two  States.  This  weakness 
would  not  only  insure  defeat  of  the  Presidential 
ticket,  but  would  carry  down  with  it  the  aspira 
tions  of  these  two  Gubernatorial  candidates. 

I  talked  with  both  of  these  able  politicians  on 
22 


FIRST   NOMINATION 

the  subject,  and  the  reasons  they  gave  for  their 
opposition  to  Seward  were  that  he  had  antago 
nized  the  Protestant  element  of  the  countfy^and 
theTelnnanTs~~oi--the  old  "Know  Nothing  party" 
by  his  advocacy,  in  a  message  to  the  New  York 
Legislature,  of  a  division  of  the  school  funds  be 
tween  Catholic  parochial  schools  and  the  common 
or  public  schools  of  the  States  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  Catholics  and  non-Catholics.  How 
much  ground  there  was  for  the  anxiety  of  Lane 
and  Curtin  I  have  never  been  able  to  settle  in  my 
mind.  Whether  they  were  unduly  alarmed  or  not, 
the  dissemination  of  these  views  among  the  del 
egates  created  a  noticeable  weakening  on  the  part 
of  Seward's  friends. 

The  battle  in  the  convention  was  a  contest  of 
political  giants.  Thurlow  Weed,  to  whom  Lin 
coln  afterward  became  greatly  attached,  was  Sew 
ard's  devoted  and  loyal  friend  and  champion.  He 
gallantly  led  the  fight  for  him,  ably  supported  by 
Edwin  D.  Morgan,  the  war  Governor  of  New 
York,  and  chairman,  at  that  time,  of  the  National 
Committee,  and  also  by  Henry  J.  Raymontl,  the 
distinguished  founder  of  the  New  York  Times,  and 
in  later  years  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  State  of 
New  York. 

Before  the  convention  was  called  to  order  at  least 
eight  candidates  were  in  the  field;  to  enumerate 
them: 

23 


HOW   WE   ELECTED   LINCOLN 

William  H.  Seward,  of  New  York. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois. 

Simon  Cameron,  of  Pennsylvania. 

Salmon  P.  Chase,  of  Ohio. 

Edward  Bates,  of  Missouri. 

William  L.  Dayton,  of  New  Jersey. 

Justice  John  McLean,  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

Jacob  Collamer,  of  Vermont. 

George  Ashman,  of  Massachusetts,  was  chosen 
permanent  chairman  of  the  convention,  and  after 
the  platform  was  read  Joshua  Giddings  moved 
that  it  should  be  amended  by  inserting  a  part  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  This  was  vio 
lently  opposed  by  another  delegate  in  a  rather  sar 
castic  speech,  whereupon  George  William  Curtis, 
one  of  the  great  orators  of  America,  and  at  the 
time  editor  of  Harper's  Weekly,  got  the  floor  and 
in  his  mellifluous  voice  said: 

"Gentlemen,  have  you  dared  to  come  to  this 
convention  to  undo  what  your  fathers  did  in 
Independence  Hall?" 

CurdPs  speech  carried  the  amendment. 

T^impress  all  wavering  delegates,  an  imposing 
political  parade  through  the  streets  was  organ 
ized  by  Se ward's  friends.  It  was  great  in  num 
bers  and  enthusiasm.  Hundreds  of  marchers, 
among  whom  Tom  Hyej^jn^h  is  gl  nssy  silk  hat, 
was  a  prominent  figure,  were  drafted  into  the 
parade  by  the  political  wire-pullers,  but  it  had  no 

24 


FIRST   NOMINATION 

effect  in  determining  the  result  on  the  floor  of  the 
convention. 

Indeed,  from  my  long  political  experience  I 
have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  these  public 
parades,  while  imposing  for  the  moment,  have  no 
permanent  influence  upon  the  voters.  The  mob 
of  spectators  along  the  streets  are  there  largely  as 
a  matter  of  curiosity,  and  are  not  to  be  swerved 
from  their  convictions  by  any  mere  spectacle. 

While  this  outside  parade  was  being  carried  on, 
Lincoln's  friends  developed  tremendous  energy 
and  skill  in  marshaling  the  delegates.  Among  the 
leaders  of  the  "rail-splitter's"  cause  were  Joseph 
Medill,  the  celebrated  editor  of  the  Chicago  Trib 
une,  David  Davis,  the  intimate  friend  of  Lincoln, 
afterward  appointed  by  him  justice  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court;  Norman  B.  Judd;  and 
Leonard  Swett,_remarkable^or  his  close  resem 
blance  to  Lincoln. 

Greeley~was  an  intense  champion  of  Edward 
Bates,  who  had  been  a  representative  from  Mis 
souri  during  the  administration  of  John  Quincy 
Adams. 

Greeley's  championship  of  Bates  was  remark 
able  for  several  reasons.  Bates  was  born  in  Vir 
ginia,  he  had  been  a  lifelong  slaveholder,  and  in 
politics  he  was  what  was  known  as  a  "Silver-gray 
Whig."  Consequently  he  was  conservative  on  the 
slavery  question,  clinging  to  the  doctrine  of  the 

25  » 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

revolutionary  sages  that  "slavery  was  an  evil  to 
be  restricted,  not  a  good  to  be  diffused.'*  Greeley 
insisted  that  the  position  that  Bates  thus  held 
made  him  essentially  a  Republican.  While  he  be 
lieved  that  Bates  would  poll  votes  even  in  the 
slave  States,  he  was  confident  that  he  would  rally 
about  him  all  that  was  left  of  the  old  Whig  party. 

Greeley,  regarding  trouble  with  the  Southern 
States  as  probably  inevitable,  yet  believed  that 
the  nomination  of  Bates  would  check  and  possibly 
avert  an  open  schism.  He  did  not  at  the  time 
avow  these  reasons  for  supporting  Bates,  but  after 
ward  frankly  admitted  them.  While  these  views 
may  have  influenced  his  opposition  to  Se ward's 
nomination,  there  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  but 
that  the  real  reason  of  his  fight  against  Seward 
were  the  grounds  hereinbefore  stated. 

The  Free  Soil  element  at  Chicago  was  both 
prominent  and  aggressive.  A  characteristic  anec 
dote  is  told  of  Greeley  during  a  caucus  at  which  a 
Free  Soil  member  shouted,  "Let  us  have  a  can 
didate,  this  time,  that  represents  our  advanced 
convictions  against  slavery." 

"My  friend,"  inquired  Greeley,  in  his  falsetto 
voice,  as  he  rose  to  his  feet,  "suppose  each  Repub 
lican  voter  in  your  State  were  to  receive  a  letter 
to-morrow  advising  him  that  he  (the  said  voter) 
had  just  lost  a  brother  living  in  the  South,  who 
had  left  to  him  a  plantation  stocked  with  slaves. 

26 


FIRST   NOMINATION 

How  many  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
Republicans  would,  in  response,  set  free  those 
slaves?" 

"I  fear  I  could  not  stand  that  test  myself,"  was 
the  rejoinder. 

"Then  it  is  not  yet  time  to  nominate  an  aboli 
tionist,"  retorted  Greeley,  sitting  down. 

This  is  a  good  story,  but  if  the  incident  took 
place  at  all  it  must  have  occurred  elsewhere  than 
in  the  caucus  of  the  New  York  delegation,  for  the 
reason  that  Greeley,  not  being  a  delegate  from  the 
State  of  New  York,  could  not  attend  the  caucus 
of  that  delegation.  He  was  appointed  a  delegate 
from  Oregon,  by  the  special  request  of  the  Re 
publicans  of  that  State,  and  as  such  sat  in  the 
convention. 

Seward  had  all  of  the  delegates  from  New  York, 
Michigan,  Massachusetts,  and  he  counted  many 
followers  in  other  States. 

Lincoln  had  a  strong  following  from  his  own 
State,  and  on  the  first  ballot  mustered  one  hun 
dred  and  two  votes  out  of  a  total  of  four  hundred 
and  sixty-six.  Seward  received  one  hundred  and 
seventy-two  and  a  half  on  the  second  ballot;  then 
Cameron  turned  his  votes  over  to  Lincoln,  and 
thirteen  of  the  Bates  delegates  followed  suit.  On 
the  third  ballot  Lincoln's  vote  had  increased  to 
two  hundred  and  thirty-one  and  a  half,  while 
Seward's  was  only  one  hundred  and  eighty.  When 

27 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

the  break  started  I  turned  to  my  neighbor  in  the 
gallery  and  remarked,  "Seward  is  defeated; 
Lincoln  will  be  nominated." 

"No,"  he  objected;  "this  is  only  one  delegation, 
and  Seward's  friends  are  too  devotedly  attached 
to  his  fortunes.  They  will  never  jgQ  qver  Qhis 
opponent." 

"And  what  will  Greeley  do?"  I  asked. 

"Greeley  will  be  left  with  onlyju^jiatred,"  he 
rejoined. 

And  yet,  even  as  we  were  speaking,  the  tide 
had  turned.  Delegate  after  delegate  came  over 
to  Lincoln,  and  the  final  ballot  gave  him  three 
hundred  and  fifty-four  votes  and  the  nomination. 
When  the  result  was  announced  there  was  an 
outbreak  from  the  galleries  which  had  been  packed 
with  Lincoln  sympathizers,  but  the  New  York 
delegates  sat  silent  and  sullen  in  their  seats.  It 
seemed  a  long  time,  although  it  was  really  only  a 
few  minutes,  before  William  M.  Evarts,  the  dis 
tinguished  member  of  the  New  York  bar,  who 
later  became  Secretary  of  State  under  President 
Hayes,  and  Senator  from  the  State  of  New  York, 
rose  and  moved,  presumably  with  Seward's  acqui 
escence,  that  Lincoln's  nomination  be  made 
unanimous.  Then  the  applause  broke  out  again 
and  this  time  it  was  much  more  general  and 
spontaneous. 

Hannibal  Hamlin,  of  Maine,  was  nominated  for 

28 


FIRST   NOMINATION 

Vice-President  practically  without  opposition.  The 
singular  coincidence  that  the  last  syllable  of 
Lincoln's  first  name,  "Abraham,"  and  the  first 
syllable  of  his  last  name,  "Lincoln,"  form  the 
name  "Hamlin,"  attracted  wide  attention  at  that 
time. 

A  great  many  anti-slavery  advocates  in  the 
North  differed  with  Lincoln  as  regards  his  views 
on  the  grave  question  of  the  immediate  extinction 
of  slavery  in  the  Southern  States.  They  did  not 
understand  him. 

They  did  not  comprehend  that  he  was  at  heart 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  unrighteousness  of 
property  in  human  beings,  but  that  he  felt  it  was 
good  policy  to  go  gradually,  step  by  step,  hoping 
to  unite  the  entire  North  and  so  bring  about  the 
ultimate  abolishment  of  slavery;  whereas,  if  the 
policy  for  the  immediate  extinction  of  slavery 
should  be  adopted  it  must  inevitably  have  dis 
rupted  the  Republican  party. 

I  was  present  at  that  convention,  not  as  a  del 
egate,  but  as  a  "looker-on"  and  a  student  of 
American  politics.  I  need  not  say  that  I  learned 
much  about  the  finesse  and  spirit  of  compromise 
that  enters  into  all  national  conventions. 

From  a  brief  conversation  which  I  had  with  Mr. 
Greeley,  I  understood  that  while  he  disclaimed 
having  effected  Seward's  defeat,  he  was  only 
moderately  gratified  at  Lincoln's  nomination, 

29 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

In  his  well-known  volume  of  Recollections  he  in 
timates  that  he  exerted  much  less  influence  in 
bringing  about  SewarcTs  defeat  than  I  gathered 
from  the  conversation  I  had  with  him  on  the 
morning  following  Lincoln's  nomination. 

The  demand  of  the  people  of  the  North,  where 
the  Republican  strength  lay  exclusively,  was  for 
a  candidate  who  would  appeal  to  both  Free- 
Soilers  and  abolitionists.  Between  these  factions 
there  was  an  almost  impassable  gulf. 

Now  as  the  years  have  rolled  on  Lincoln  has 
grown  steadily  in  the  love  and  admiration  of  the 
American  people,  and  the  unjust  criticism  which 
was  made  by  the  abolitionists  at  the  time  of  his 
nomination,  namely,  that  he  did  not  favor  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  States  because  he  was 
born  in  the  South,  is  regarded  with  disdain.  The 
abolitionists  in  their  intemperate  criticism  used 
language,  in  discussing  Lincoln,  hardly  less  acri 
monious  than  that  employed  by  the  "fire-eaters" 
of  the  South;  but  they  had  no  recourse  except  to 
vote  for  him.  Thus  were  added  thousands  of  un 
willing  votes  to  swell  the  Lincoln  aggregate  in  the 
November  election. 

The  Democratic  convention  had  convened  at  an 
earlier  date  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  the  city 
of  my  birth.  After  quarreling  over  a  platform  for  a 
week,  the  convention  was  split  by  the  withdrawal 
of  the  majority  of  the  delegates  of  the  slave 

30 


FIRST   NOMINATION 

States,  following  the  adoption  of  the  plank  favor 
ing  the  Douglas  "popular  sovereignty"  doctrine. 

After  fifty-seven  ballots  for  President,  in  which 
Douglas  had  the  majority  in  every  instance,  but 
not  the  two-thirds  required  for  nomination  in 
Democratic  conventions,  the  convention  adjourned 
on  May  3,  1860,  to  reassemble  at  Baltimore,  June 
18.  There,  the  places  of  the  seceders  having  been 
filled,  Douglas  received  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  and  a  half  votes  on  the  first  ballot  and  one 
hundred  and  eighty-one  and  a  half  on  the  second, 
still  lacking  the  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the  three 
hundred  and  three  delegates  in  convention.  On 
motion  of  Sanford  E.  Church,  of  New  York,  who, 
in  later  years,  became  chief -justice  of  the  Court  of 
Appeals  of  that  State,  he  was  declared  the  nominee. 
Herschel  V.  Johnson,  of  Georgia,  was  named  as 
candidate  for  Vice-President. 

The  remnant  of  the  Charleston  convention 
gathered  itself  together  in  a  separate  convention, 
also  held  in  Baltimore,  on  the  eleventh  day  of 
June.  It  adjourned  on  the  25th  of  that 
month,  when  John  C.  Breckenridge,  of  Kentucky, 
— at  that  time  Vice-President  under  Buchanan — 
was  unanimously  named  for  President,  with  Gen. 
Joseph  H.  Lane,  of  Oregon,  as  his  running  mate. 

In  the  Charleston  convention  Benjamin  F. 
Butler,  of  Massachusetts,  who  during  the  Civil 
War  became  identified  with  the  North  and  was 

31 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

made  a  major-general  in  the  Union  Army,  cast  a 
solitary  vote  for  Jefferson  Davis  as  the  Democratic 
candidate  for  President. 

The  three-cornered  contest  that  followed  be 
tween  Lincoln,  Douglas,  and  Breckenridge  is  par 
alleled  in  American  political  history  by  the  famous 
campaign  of  1824  when  Jackson,  Adams,  Clay, 
and  Crawford,  all  of  the  same  party,  were  running 
for  the  Presidency.  As  none  of  the  latter  received 
a  majority  of  the  electoral  vote,  the  election,  under 
the  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  was  thrown 
into  the  House  of  Representatives,  where  John 
Quincy  Adams  received  the  nomination. 

When  the  committee  went  to  Springfield  to 
notify  Mr.  Lincoln  of  his  nomination,  Judge  Kelly, 
of  Pennsylvania,  known,  because  of  his  service  of 
over  thirty  years  in  Congress,  as  the  father  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  was  one  of  the  com 
mittee.  The  judge  was  unusually  large  in  stature, 
and  his  great  height  attracted  Mr.  Lincoln,  who, 
upon  shaking  hands  with  him,  asked,  "What  is 
your  height,  Judge?" 

"About  six  feet  three,"  said  Judge  Kelly. 
"What  is  yours,  Mr.  Lincoln." 

"Six  feet  four,"  replied  Lincoln,  with  a  smile, 
pulling  himself  up  to  his  full  stature. 

"Pennsylvania,"  said  Judge  Kelly,  "bows  to 
Illinois.  My  dear  man,  for  years  my  heart  has 
been  aching  for  a  President  that  I  could  'look 

32 


FIRST   NOMINATION 

up  to/  and  I  have  found  him  in  the  land  where  we 
thought  there  was  none  but  *  Little  Giants.' ' 

Lincoln  replied,  "There  is  one  man  in  this  coun 
try  who,  though  little  in  stature,  is  a  giant  in 
mind,  and  he  has  given  me  much  hard  work  to  do." 

Mr.  Lincoln's  reply  to  the  committee  that  vis 
ited  Springfield  on  May  19,  to  notify  him  of  his 
nomination,  and  his  formal  letter  of  acceptance, 
dated  May  23,  avoided  all  reference  to  what  Mr. 
Seward  had  described  as  "the  impending  crisis." 
In  his  letter  Mr.  Lincoln  pledged  "due  regard  to 
the  rights  of  all  States  and  Territories  and  people 
of  the  nation,  to  the  inviolability  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  the  perpetual  union,  harmony,  and  pros 
perity  of  all."  This  assurance  satisfied  neither 
slaveholders  of  the  South  nor  anti-slave  men  of 
the  North.  This  letter  often  rose  to  haunt  Lin 
coln  in  the  latter  part  of  the  war,  after  he  had 
issued  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  which  gave 
freedom  to  all  the  slaves. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  the  office  of  the  Springfield 
Journal  when  he  received  the  first  notification  of 
his  nomination.  After  allowing  the  assembled 
people  to  congratulate  him,  he  said,  "There  is  a 
little  woman  down  at  our  house  that  would  like 
to  hear  the  news,"  and  he  started  at  once  for  home. 


IV 

HOW   LINCOLN  WAS  FIRST  ELECTED 

NOT  long  after  the  nomination  I  went  to 
Chicago  and  thence  to  Springfield.  When 
I  called  at  the  modest  Lincoln  home,  in  order  to 
offer  my  congratulations,  I  found  him  eager  to 
obtain  every  ray  of  light  upon  the  prospects  of  the 
coming  campaign. 

"What  are  the  chances  of  my  election?"  he 
asked,  as  he  took  my  hand. 

"You  are  going  to  get  the  entire  North,"  I 
replied,  "on  account  of  the  Democratic  division 
between  Breckenridge  and  Douglas." 

"That  is  my  own  way  of  calculating,"  he  as 
sented,  "but  I  am  glad  to  get  the  views  of  every 
body  of  experience  in  political  matters." 

"Mr.  Dittenhoefer  is  absolutely  correct  in  his 
figuring,"  put  in  a  bystander,  and  the  glimmer  of 
a  smile  of  satisfaction  passed  over  Mr.  Lincoln's 
rugged  countenance.  I  stepped  back  and  stood 
looking  and  wondering.  Typically  Western  he 
seemed  to  be  in  face,  figure,  and  dress.  How  would 

34 


FIRST    ELECTION 

he  bear  himself  if  called  upon  to  direct  the  des 
tinies  of  the  Republic?  Let  me  say  frankly  that, 
at  this  early  day,  no  suspicion  of  his  real  great 
ness  had  ever  entered  my  mind.  I  knew  he  was 
an  able  man,  and  I  was  content  to  hope  that  he 
might  be  strong  enough  to  cope  with  the  coming 
crisis  in  national  affairs. 

The  Republican  campaign,  which  began  in  ear 
nest  by  the  middle  of  June  and  lasted  until  the 
night  before  election  day  in  November,  differed  in 
many  respects  from  any  other  in  my  recollection. 

I  believe  that  there  was  more  sincerity  of  soul 
put  into  the  efforts  to  win  by  fair  means  than  has 
appeared  in  more  recent  national  contests. 

A  few  days  before  the  election  of  1860  I  made  a 
speech  at  Cooper  Institute,  which  began  as  follows : 

"With  banners  waving  and  with  bugle  horns, 
We  are  coming,  Father  Abraham,  five  hundred  thousand 

strong, 
One  blast  upon  the  bugle  horn  is  worth  a  thousand  men." 

This  was  repeated  by  numerous  speakers  on  the 
stump  throughout  the  country. 

Memories  of  these  parades,  stump  speeches,  and 
bonfires  linger  with  me  vividly.  The  marching 
clubs  were  called  "Wide  Awakes,"  and  upon  the 
oil-cloth  cloaks,  cut  amply  long  in  order  to  protect 
their  wearers  from  the  weather,  the  words  "Wide 
Awake,"  in  tall,  white  letters,  were  painted.  Each 

35 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

man  carried  a  swinging  torch  which  maintained 
an  upright  position  no  matter  how  it  was  held. 
The  campaign  developed  numerous  parades  of 
these  "Wide  Awakes"  in  cities  and  towns  through 
out  the  country. 

The  Republican  National  Committee  was  not 
in  possession  of  large  funds,  and  each  organization 
financed  itself.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  National  Com 
mittee  had  more  than  $100,000  to  spend,  and  most 
of  this  went  for  printing  and  postage.  There  was 
no  "yellow-dog  fund"  in  those  days.  Had  it  been 
necessary  for  Mr.  Lincoln  or  his  managers  to  raise 
a  half-million  dollars,  or  go  down  to  defeat, 
Lincoln  would  have  lost  out. 

Our  "infant  industries"  had  not  yet  been  de 
veloped  and  "brought  to  a  head  by  the  poultice 
of  protection."  The  late  Senator  Hanna  would 
have  regarded  the  prospects  of  a  successful  cam 
paign  without  contribution  from  the  protected 
interests  as  exceedingly  doubtful. 

I  threw  all  my  energy  into  this  campaign,  and, 
though  young,  I  was  frequently  making  several 
speeches  during  a  day  and  evening.  I  marched 
with  the  "Wide  Awakes,"  and  was  sent  to  differ 
ent  parts  of  the  State,  where,  with  other  speakers, 
I  addressed  large  audiences.  The  temper  of  my 
hearers  was  not  always  encouraging. 

I  have  always  doubted  whether  Seward's  par 
tisan  adherents  in  central  New  York  gave  really 

36 


FIRST   ELECTION 

loyal  support  to  Lincoln,  since  it  continued  to 
rankle  in  their  breasts  that  the  sentiment  of  two- 
thirds  of  the  convention,  originally  in  favor  of 
Seward,  had  been  turned  to  Lincoln  through  the 
machinations  of  Horace  Greeley,  Reuben  E.  Fen- 
ton — afterward  Governor  of  the  State  of  New 
York — and  other  prominent  anti-Seward  men. 

No  attempt  was  made  by  the  Republicans  to 
campaign  in  the  Southern  States,  where  the  breach 
existing  between  the  Douglas  and  Breckenridge 
adherents  was  remorselessly  unrelenting.  The 
drift  in  those  States  was  naturally  unanimously  in 
favor  of  Breckenridge,  and  it  was  early  recognized 
that  Douglas,  though  a  Democrat,  would  not  carry 
a  single  Southern  State. 

In  the  North  the  contest  lay  between  Lincoln 
and  Douglas.  Breckenridge  and  Bell  counted 
comparatively  few  and  scattered  followers,  and 
their  names  awakened  no  enthusiasm. 

Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  one  of  the  best  types  of 
the  American  aggressive  politician  this  country 
ever  produced.  I  heard  Douglas  speak  on  several 
occasions.  His  figure  was  short  and  chunky, 
hardly  measuring  up  to  his  popular  title  of  the 
"Little  Giant."  He  was  very  eloquent,  but  his 
campaign  theme,  "Popular  Sovereignty,"  was 
never  a  drawing-card  in  the  North,  and  the  prac 
tical  application  of  this  doctrine  was  really  re 
stricted  to  the  Territories,  including  "Bleeding 

37 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

Kansas."  The  many  speeches  that  Douglas  made 
throughout  the  North  only  had  the  effect  of 
consolidating  the  opponents  of  "Squatter  Sov 
ereignty." 

The  adoption  by  Southern  States  of  the  prin 
ciple  of  "State  rights,"  which  in  effect  was  only 
another  name  for  the  right  of  secession,  was  the 
reason  advanced  to  justify  the  rebellion  which 
broke  out  with  such  fury  in  later  years;  but  the 
demand  for  the  right  to  introduce  slavery  into 
new  territory  was,  in  my  opinion,  the  impelling 
reason  that  finally  made  the  Civil  War  inevitable. 

In  the  free  States  the  division  of  the  popular 
vote  was  chiefly  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas, 
while  the  slave  States  were  largely  for  Brecken- 
ridge,  with  a  minority  for  Bell,  the  "Silver-gray 
Whig"  candidate. 

The  totals  in  the  two  sections  are  interesting  as 
matters  of  record: 

BRECKEN- 
LINCOLN     DOUGLAS       RIDGE       BELL 

Free  States 1,831,180     1,128,049      279,211     130,151 

Slave    States 26,430        163,574      570,871     515,973 

Total 1,857,610    1,291,623      850,082     646,124 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  180  electoral  votes  to  123  for 
all  the  other  candidates.  Every  free  State,  with 
the  exception  of  New  Jersey,  went  for  him,  and 
even  New  Jersey  gave  him  four  votes,  the  three 

38 


FIRST   ELECTION 

remaining  going  to  the  "Little  Giant."  Breck~ 
enridge,  with  a  much  smaller  popular  vote  than 
Douglas,  had  72  electoral  votes,  while  Douglas, 
with  a  larger  popular  vote,  had  only  12  in  all. 

As  Mr.  Greeley  accurately  summed  it  up:  "A 
united  North  succeeded  over  a  divided  South; 
while  in  1856  a  united  South  triumphed  over  a 
divided  North." 

Let  us  remember  that  a  majority  of  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Supreme  Court  had  shown  strong 
Southern  proclivities;  the  Senate  was  also  largely 
anti-Republican,  and  the  House  of  Representatives 
had  a  very  mixed  political  complexion,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  many  of  its  members  had  been 
chosen  in  the  October  election  preceding  the 
Presidential  election. 

Such  was  the  national  situation  after  the  popular 
verdict  had  been  declared  in  favor  of  Lincoln  and 
Hamlin.  The  South  could  not  reconcile  itself  to 
the  result.  Trouble  was  in  the  air,  but  the  North 
did  not  yet  realize  the  inevitability  of  civil  war. 

It  was  a  long,  anxious  winter  for  the  President 
elect,  and  the  strain  upon  him  then  was  even 
more  noticeable  than  after  he  assumed  the  burden 
of  his  great  office. 

He  delivered  his  pathetic  farewell  address  to 
his  neighbors  and  friends  in  Springfield  on  Feb 
ruary  11,  1861,  and  the  following  extract  is 
entitled  to  a  place  in  this  record: 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

My  friends:  No  one,  not  in  my  situation,  can  appreciate 
my  feeling  of  sadness  at  this  parting.  To  this  place,  and  the 
kindness  of  these  people,  I  owe  everything.  Here  I  have 
lived  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  have  passed  from  a  young 
to  an  old  man.  Here  my  children  have  been  born,  and  here 
one  is  buried.  I  now  leave,  not  knowing  when  or  whether  I 
ever  may  return,  with  a  task  before  me  greater  than  that 
which  rested  upon  Washington.  Without  the  assistance  of 
that  Divine  Being  who  ever  attended  him  I  cannot  succeed. 
With  that  assistance  I  cannot  fail.  Trusting  in  Him  who 
can  go  with  me,  and  yet  remain  with  you  and  be  everywhere 
for  good,  let  us  confidently  hope  that  all  will  yet  be  well. 
To  His  care  commending  you,  as  I  hope  in  your  prayers  you 
will  commend  me,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell. 

Many  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  neighbors  were  in  tears. 
I  was  not  at  Springfield  on  that  day,  but  I  heard 
directly  from  men  who  were  present  that  the  pain 
of  separation  was  keenly  felt  by  all  classes  of 
society. 

Mr.  Lincoln  left  Springfield  not  to  return. 


THE  JOURNEY  TO  THE  CAPITAL 

THE  trip  from  Springfield  to  Washington  was 
one  of  continuous  enthusiasm,  the  President 
elect  receiving  an  ovation  at  every  city  en  route. 
The  first  halt  was  made  at  Indianapolis,  where  he 
addressed  a  meeting,  at  which  the  famous  War- 
Governor  Morton  presided.  On  this  occasion  he 
declared  that  "  the  preservation  of  the  Union  rests 
entirely  with  the  people." 

On  the  same  day  he  spoke  before  a  joint  meet 
ing  of  the  Indiana  Legislature,  choosing  for  his 
theme:  "The  Union,  is  it  a  marriage  bond  or  a 
free-love  arrangement?" 

When  about  to  cross  the  Ohio  River  into  Vir 
ginia,  a  slave  State,  he  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that 
devotion  to  the  Constitution  was  equally  great  on 
both  sides  of  the  stream,  and  he  went  on  to 
emphasize  the  right  of  the  majority  to  rule. 

Arriving  at  Cleveland,  he  made  an  address  in 
which  he  referred  to  the  apprehended  trouble  as 
"altogether  artificial,  due  only  to  differences  in 

41 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

political  opinion."  "Nothing,"  he  declared,  "is 
going  to  hurt  the  South;  they  are  citizens  of  this 
common  country  and  we  have  no  power  to  change 
their  conditions.  What,  then,  is  the  matter  with 
them?  Why  all  these  complaints?  Doesn't  this 
show  how  artificial  is  the  crisis?  It  has  no  foun 
dation  in  fact.  It  can't  be  argued  up  and  it  can't 
be  argued  down.  Let  it  alone,  and  it  will  go 
down  of  itself." 

This  would  seem  to  show  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
really  believed  that  the  trouble  in  the  South 
would  blow  over.  How  sadly  he  was  mistaken! 
It  was  not  until  he  arrived  in  the  East  and  learned 
from  trustworthy  sources  of  the  danger  confront 
ing  him  between  New  York  and  Washington  that 
he  accepted  the  situation  as  it  actually  existed. 

Buffalo  was  the  next  stopping-place,  and  the 
mayor  and  a  large  assemblage  welcomed  the 
President-elect.  The  stability  of  the  Union  was 
the  speaker's  theme,  but  he  reiterated  that  he 
relied  more  upon  divine  assistance  than  help  from 
human  hands  and  hearts. 

At  Albany  Governor  Morgan  presided  over  a 
public  meeting,  at  which  Lincoln  again  declared 
that  he  would  be  "President  not  of  a  party,  but 
of  a  nation."  Later  in  the  day  he  delivered  an 
other  address,  in  which  he  said  that  "the  might 
iest  of  tasks  confronted  the  humblest  of  Presi 
dents," 


THE    JOURNEY   TO   THE    CAPITAL 

He  remained  two  days  in  New  York  City, 
where  he  delivered  two  addresses.  To  a  large 
audience,  over  which  the  unsympathetic  Dem 
ocratic  mayor,  Fernando  Wood,  presided,  Mr. 
Lincoln  expressed  his  doubts  as  to  the  situation 
in  quaint  language.  He  likened  the  Union  to  a 
ship  and  its  traditions  to  the  cargo,  saying  that 
he  was  willing  and  anxious  to  save  both  the  ship 
and  cargo,  but  if  not  both,  the  cargo  would  have 
to  go  overboard  for  the  safety  of  the  ship. 

I  heard  that  address  and  it  gave  me  the  im 
pression  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  become  bolder  in 
the  expression  of  his  feeling  against  the  contin 
uance  of  slavery  in  the  South.  To-day  it  recalls 
itself  to  me  as  being  the  first  gleam  of  emanci 
pation. 

The  speaker  was  more  grave  and  serious  than 
usual;  his  voice  was  harsh  and  his  manner  in 
dicated  either  fatigue  or  anxiety  regarding  the 
future.  I  detected  a  decided  change  in  Mr. 
Lincoln  since  seeing  him  at  Springfield;  he  was 
a  man  carrying  a  burden  that  grew  heavier  day 
by  day. 

The  journey  toward  Washington  was  resumed 
on  February  21,  a  halt  being  made  at  Trenton  for 
the  President-elect  to  address,  separately,  the 
Senate  and  the  Assembly  of  New  Jersey. 

Later  in  the  afternoon  the  train  reached  Phila 
delphia,  where  a  reception  presided  over  by  the 

43 


HOW    WE    ELECTED   LINCOLN 

mayor  was  tendered  to  him.  In  consequence  of 
reports  of  danger  he  was  practically  smuggled 
away  from  Philadelphia,  being  hurried  in  a  closed 
carriage  to  the  old  Prince  Street  station,  on  South 
Broad  Street,  where  an  engine  and  one  car  was 
waiting.  This  was  run  through  to  Baltimore  and 
thence  over  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  branch  to 
Washington. 

A  large  number  of  citizens  in  Baltimore,  not 
confined  by  any  means  to  the  mob,  were  bitterly 
hostile  to  "the  Yankee  President,"  as  they  de 
risively  described  the  man  from  Illinois.  That 
the  precautions  taken  were  justified  was  proven 
within  two  months  by  the  murderous  assault  upon 
the  Sixth  Massachusetts  regiment  during  its  march 
through  Baltimore. 

A  little  over  four  years  later,  when  Lincoln's 
funeral  cortege  passed  through  Baltimore,  a  com 
plete  change  of  feeling  had  taken  place.  In  the 
selfsame  city  which  had  been  considered  unsafe 
for  President  Lincoln  to  pass  through,  the  first 
great  demonstration  of  grief  occurred. 

The  President-elect  arrived  in  Washington  on 
February  27,  and  although  no  outward  evidence 
of  the  coming  storm  was  observable,  there  was  an 
intense  feeling  of  anxiety  among  all  classes  at  the 
national  capital;  it  must  be  remembered  that 
most  of  the  office-holders  were  Southerners  and 
that  the  city  was  filled  with  residents  sympathetic 

44 


THE   JOURNEY   TO   THE    CAPITAL 

with  the  South.  In  a  reply  to  a  serenade  at  his 
hotel  on  the  evening  of  February  28,  Mr.  Lincoln 
lamented  the  misunderstanding  that  existed  be 
tween  the  people  of  the  North  and  the  South,  and 
reiterated  his  determination  to  enforce  equal 
rights  under  the  Constitution  to  all  citizens.  He 
pledged  an  impartial  administration  of  the  law. 
I  was  present  at  the  delivery  of  Lincoln's  in 
augural  address,  a  wonderful  piece  of  English 
composition  which  will  continue  to  live  when  the 
monuments  of  bronze  and  marble  erected  to  his 
memory  have  crumbled  to  dust.  In  it  occur  these 
unforgetable  words: 

With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness 
in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  to 
finish  the  work  we  are  in;  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds; 
to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his 
widow  and  orphan — to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish 
a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves,  and  with  all 
nations. 

The  President  impressed  me  as  being  very  seri 
ous  in  manner.  His  voice  sounded  shrill,  but  he 
was  talking  at  high  pitch  in  order  that  he  might 
be  heard  by  as  many  as  possible  of  the  immense 
crowd.  The  assemblage  was  orderly,  respectful, 
and  attentive.  Little  by  little  his  auditors  warmed 
toward  him,  until  finally  the  applause  became  over 
whelming,  spontaneous,  and  enthusiastic.  Then, 

45 


HOW    WE    ELECTED   LINCOLN 

for  the  first  time,  it  dawned  upon  me  that 
Lincoln  was  not  only  the  strong  man  needed  at 
this  crisis  of  our  national  affairs,  but  one  of  the 
few  great  men  of  all  time;  and  I  may  say  safely 
that  this  conviction  was  shared  by  all  within 
hearing  of  his  voice. 

Thirty-nine  days  later  the  cannon  were  boom 
ing  at  Fort  Moultrie  and  Fort  Sumter. 


VI 

STORIES  AND   INCIDENTS 

A  PPARENTLY  the  world  is  never  weary  of 
JLJL  asking  what  was  the  true  Abraham  Lincoln, 
and  every  side-light  upon  his  character  is  signif 
icant. 

A  man  whom  I  knew  well  discovered  the  Presi 
dent  at  his  office  counting  greenbacks  and  in 
closing  them  in  an  envelope.  He  asked  Mr. 
Lincoln  how  he  could  spare  the  time  for  such  a 
task  in  the  midst  of  the  important  duties  that 
were  pressing  upon  him. 

Lincoln  replied:  "The  President  of  the  United 
States  has  a  multiplicity  of  duties  not  specified  in 
the  Constitution  or  the  laws.  This  is  one  of  them. 
It  is  money  which  belongs  to  a  negro  porter  from 
the  Treasury  Department.  He  is  now  in  the 
hospital,  too  sick  to  sign  his  name,  and  according 
to  his  wish  I  am  putting  a  part  of  it  aside  in  an 
envelope,  properly  labeled,  to  save  it  for  him." 

An  eye-witness  relates  that  one  day  while 
walking  along  a  shaded  path  from  the  Executive 
Mansion  to  the  War  Office,  he  saw  the  tall  form  of 

47 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

the  President  seated  on  the  grass.  He  afterward 
learned  that  a  wounded  soldier,  while  on  his  way 
to  the  White  House  seeking  back  pay  and  a 
pension,  had  met  the  President  and  had  asked 
his  assistance.  Whereupon  Mr.  Lincoln  sat  down, 
looked  over  the  soldier's  papers,  and  advised  him 
what  to  do;  he  ended  by  giving  him  a  note  direct 
ing  him  to  the  proper  place  to  secure  attention. 

Driving  up  to  a  hospital  one  day  he  saw  one  of  the 
patients  walking  directly  in  the  path  of  his  team. 
The  horses  were  checked  none  too  soon;  then 
Mr.  Lincoln  saw  that  he  was  nothing  but  a  boy 
and  had  been  wounded  in  both  eyes.  He  got  out 
of  the  carriage  and  questioned  the  poor  fellow, 
asking  him  his  name,  his  service,  and  his  residence. 
"I  am  Abraham  Lincoln,"  he  said,  upon  leaving; 
and  the  sightless  face  lighted  at  the  President's 
words  of  sympathy.  The  following  day  the  chief 
of  the  hospital  delivered  to  the  boy  a  commission 
in  the  Army  of  the  United  States  as  first  lieuten 
ant.  The  papers  bore  the  President's  signature 
and  were  accompanied  by  an  order  retiring  him 
on  three-quarters  pay  for  the  years  of  helplessness 
that  lay  before  him. 

"Some  of  my  generals  complain  that  I  impair 
discipline  in  the  Army  by  my  pardons  and 
respites,"  Lincoln  once  said.  "But  it  rests  me, 
after  a  hard  day's  work,  if  I  can  find  some  excuse 
for  saving  a  man's  life,  and  I  go  to  bed  happy  as 

48 


STORIES   AND    INCIDENTS 

I  think  how  joyous  the  signing  of  my  name  will 
make  him  and  his  family  and  his  friends." 

I  once  heard  Mr.  Lincoln  telling  a  number  of 
Congressmen  in  the  anteroom  of  the  White  House 
that  in  the  distribution  of  patronage  care  should 
be  taken  of  the  disabled  soldiers  and  the  widows 
and  orphans  of  deceased  soldiers,  and  these  views 
were  subsequently  conveyed  to  the  Senate  in  a 
message  which  contained  the  following  language: 

Yesterday  a  little  endorsement  of  mine  went  to  you  in 
two  cases  of  postmasterships  sought  for  widows  whose  hus 
bands  have  fallen  in  the  battles  of  the  war.  These  cases 
occurring  on  the  same  day  brought  me  to  reflect  more  atten 
tively  than  I  had  before  as  to  what  is  fairly  due  in  the  dis 
pensing  of  patronage  to  the  men  who,  by  fighting  our  battles, 
bear  the  chief  burden  of  saving  our  country.  My  conclu 
sion  is  that,  other  claims  and  qualifications  being  equal,  they 
have  the  better  right;  and  this  is  especially  applicable  to 
the  disabled  soldier  and  the  deceased  soldier's  family. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  consider  here 
what  would  be  Mr.  Lincoln's  attitude  toward  the 
irrepressible  conflict  that  has  been  raging  with 
such  fierceness  all  over  the  world,  between  capital 
and  labor,  and  which  is  ever  increasing  in  inten 
sity.  I  quote  the  following  extracts  from  Lincoln's 
message  to  Congress  as  showing  his  views  on  that 
question : 

It  is  not  needed,  not  fitting  here,  that  a  general  argument 
should  be  made  in  favor  of  popular  institutions,  but  there 
4  49 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

is  one  point  not  so  hackneyed  to  which  I  ask  a  brief  attention 
— it  is  an  effort  to  place  capital  on  an  equal  footing  with,  if 
not  above,  labor  in  the  structure  of  the  Government.  Capital 
is  the  fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never  have  existed  if  labor 
had  not  existed.  Labor  is  the  superior  of  capital,  and  deserves 
much  higher  consideration. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  President's  sym 
pathies  were  with  struggling  labor,  and  against 
the  powerful  capitalists,  and  that  he  would  ex 
ercise  his  constitutional  powers  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  the  laboring  class.  That  attitude  is  in 
keeping  with  the  broad  humanitarian  principles 
that  always  influenced  Mr.  Lincoln's  actions. 

Truly,  Lincoln's  great,  tender  heart  was  always 
open  to  the  sufferings  of  humanity;  certainly  his 
sympathy  was  never  branded  by  the  limitations 
of  creed  or  dogma.  He  never  became  a  member 
of  any  church,  but  no  one  could  doubt  that  he 
was  a  man  of  deep  religious  feeling.  I  remember 
on  one  occasion  hearing  him  say,  "Religion  is  a 
matter  of  faith;  all  good  men  will  be  saved." 
Judging  by  our  standard  of  to-day,  this  utterance 
would  class  him  with  the  Unitarians. 

Upon  one  occasion,  after  he  had  become  our 
President,  he  visited  the  Five  Points  Mission  in 
New  York,  at  that  time  a  notorious  slum,  and 
addressed  a  number  of  children;  while  there  he 
gave  no  intimation  that  he  was  President  of  the 
United  States.  When  he  was  leaving  the  teacher 

50 


STORIES    AND    INCIDENTS 

thanked  him,  and  asked  who  he  was.  He  simply 
answered,  "Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois." 

I  have  spoken  of  seeing  Lincoln  smile,  but  I 
never  remember  hearing  him  laugh  heartily,  even 
when  he  was  convulsing  every  one  about  him 
with  one  of  his  inimitably  told  stories.  And  yet 
he  apparently  enjoyed  exciting  the  mirth  of  others, 
and  to  that  extent,  at  least,  he  seemed  to  enter 
into  the  spirit  of  the  comedy.  Many  of  the  great 
humorists  of  the  world  have  been  men  of  melan 
choly  mood,  and  both  tears  and  laughter  are  based 
on  the  same  precious  essence. 

I  was  often  in  Washington  in  those  days,  and  I 
recollect  frequently  seeing  the  great  President 
walking  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  with  "Little 
Tad"  clasping  his  hand.  The  fact  that  he  took 
Tad  with  him  on  his  important  mission  to  Rich 
mond,  where  he  attended  the  conference  with 
some  of  the  leaders  of  the  Confederacy,  shows  the 
companionship  and  intense  affection  between  the 
President  and  the  son  of  his  old  age. 

Once  while  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  at  Manchester, 
Vermont,  she  received  a  message  from  the  Presi 
dent,  saying,  "All  is  well,  including  Tad's  pony 
and  the  goats."  A  little  later  he  asked  her  to  tell 
"dear  Tad  that  poor  nanny-goat  is  lost." 

I  often  saw  the  President  sitting  in  the  White 
House  in  carpet  slippers,  and  wearing  an  old 
bombazine  coat  out  at  the  elbows.  Indeed,  Mr, 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

Lincoln  was  not  created  to  adorn  fashionable 
society,  and  did  not  care  for  it.  Clothing  never 
troubled  him,  while  Mrs.  Lincoln  set  much  store 
upon  appearances  and  was  concerned  over  her 
husband's  indifference  to  them. 

The  severe  trials  which  confronted  him,  greater 
than  any  other  President  encountered,  and  the 
heavy  burden  that  rested  on  him,  did  not  blunt 
his  finer  feelings. 

In  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  which 
his  visit  to  Richmond  came  up,  I  casually  inquired 
what  he  thought  should  be  done  with  Jefferson 
Davis  at  the  end  of  the  war,  which  appeared  then 
to  be  approaching.  After  a  moment's  deliberation 
his  sad  face  brightened  as  he  answered  that,  if 
he  had  his  way,  he  would  let  him  die  in  peace  on 
his  Southern  plantation.  I  remember  well  that 
at  that  time  my  interpretation  of  his  words  was 
that  he  would  not  permit  any  punishment  to  be 
inflicted  on  Jefferson  Davis,  unless  it  were  abso 
lutely  demanded  by  the  American  people. 

During  the  early  part  of  President  Johnson's 
administration,  after  the  collapse  of  the  rebel 
lion,  Davis  was  captured  and  brought  on  habeas 
corpus  proceedings  before  a  Virginia  court  and 
released  on  bail.  Horace  Greeley,  Gerritt  Smith, 
and  other  Northern  anti-slavery  men  became 
sureties  on  the  bail  bond,  but  no  proceedings  were 
ever  taken  to  bring  Davis  to  trial.  He  was  al- 

52 


STORIES    AND    INCIDENTS 

lowed  to  die  in  peace  on  his  Southern  planta 
tion. 

Can  history  show  any  thought  more  magnani 
mous  in  the  life  of  a  ruler  or  statesman  than  this? 
Lincoln  urged  Meade,  after  the  battle  of  Gettys 
burg  to  pursue  Lee  in  retreat  and  with  one  bold 
stroke  end  the  war.  The  order  was  peremptory, 
but  a  friendly  note  was  attached,  as  follows: 

The  order  I  enclose  is  not  of  record.  If  you  succeed,  you 
need  not  publish  the  order.  If  you  fail,  publish  it.  Then, 
if  you  succeed,  you  will  have  all  the  credit  of  the  movement. 
If  not,  I'll  take  care  of  the  responsibility. 

A  striking  example  of  the  President's  unselfish 
refusal  to  use  his  official  position  for  the  advance 
ment  of  any  member  of  his  family,  is  found  in  his 
letter  to  General  Grant,  asking  for  a  commission 
for  his  son,  Robert. 

Please  read  and  answer  this  letter  as  though  I  was  not 
President,  but  only  a  friend.  My  son,  now  in  his  twenty- 
second  year,  having  graduated  at  Harvard,  wishes  to  see 
something  of  the  war  before  it  ends.  I  do  not  wish  to  put 
him  in  the  ranks,  nor  yet  give  him  a  commission  to  which 
those  who  have  already  served  long  are  better  entitled  and 
better  qualified  to  hold. 

Could  he,  without  embarrassment  to  you  or  detriment  to 
the  service,  go  into  your  military  family  with  some  nominal 
rank;  I,  and  not  the  public,  furnishing  his  necessary  means? 
If  not,  say  so  without  the  least  hesitation,  because  I  am  as 
anxious  and  as  deeply  interested  that  you  shall  not  be  en 
cumbered  as  you  can  be  yourself. 

53 


HOW   WE   ELECTED   LINCOLN 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  famous  for  disposing  of  office- 
seekers  without  leaving  a  sting  behind.  H.  C. 
Whitney  told  this  story  to  a  friend  of  mine: 

"I  had  business  in  Washington  in  1861  per 
taining  to  the  Indian  service,  and  I  remarked  to 
Mr.  Lincoln  that,  'Everything  is  drifting  into  the 
war,  and  I  guess  you  will  have  to  put  me  in  the 
Army.'  Lincoln  smiled  and  said:  'I'm  making 
generals  now.  In  a  few  days  I'll  be  making 
quartermasters,  then  I'll  see  to  you.' " 

Lincoln,  referring  to  the  criticisms  made  upon 
the  administration,  particularly  in  regard  to 
matters  entirely  outside  of  its  jurisdiction,  said 
that  he  was  reminded  of  a  certain  Long  Island 
fisherman  who  was  accustomed  to  go  out  eeling 
every  morning.  In  the  old  days,  he  asserted,  he 
never  caught  less  than  a  pailful  of  eels,  but  since 
this  administration  came  into  power  he  had  to  be 
content  with  half  a  pailful.  Therefore  he  was 
going  to  vote  for  the  Democratic  party;  he 
wanted  a  change. 


VII 

FOUR  YEARS   OF  STRESS  AND   STRAIN 

BUCHANAN  belonged  to  the  school  of  Amer 
ican  pro-slavery  Presidents.  During  the  last 
year  of  his  administration  he  was  as  completely 
dominated  by  the  Southern  members  of  his 
Cabinet  as  were  the  Merovingian  kings  by  their 
mayors  of  the  palace.  By  blackest  treachery, 
John  B.  Floyd,  Secretary  of  War,  and  Isaac 
Toucey,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  gorged  the 
armories  and  navy  -  yards  located  in  the  slave 
States  with  arms,  ordnance,  and  all  manner  of 
munitions  of  war,  thus  anticipating  months  ahead 
what  the  Southern  politicians  regarded  as  the 
"inevitable  conflict."  The  Federal  Government, 
with  the  spineless  Buchanan  at  its  head,  was  ut 
terly  unprepared  for  the  crisis. 

Such  was  the  situation  when  President  Lincoln 
took  the  oath  of  office;  such  the  already  divided 
nation  when  the  irresolute,  truckling  Buchanan 
handed  over  the  destinies  of  the  Republic  to  his 
successor, 

55 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

No  heavier  burden  ever  was  imposed  upon  a 
ruler  of  any  people. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  only  partially  fortunate  in 
choosing  his  Cabinet.  Seward  was  inevitable. 
Chase  was  a  lucky  guess,  because  he  was  without 
a  record  as  a  financier.  Cameron  was  a  mistake, 
and  the  error  was  not  rectified  as  promptly  as  it 
should  have  been.  The  other  members,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  Gideon  Welles,  who  received 
the  Navy  portfolio,  were  negligible. 

The  administration  found  itself  without  an 
army,  many  of  its  ablest  officers  having  left  the 
service  to  take  up  arms  against  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment.  The  rank  and  file  of  the  army  was 
fairly  loyal,  but  the  troops  had  been  so  scattered 
by  Buchanan's  secretary  of  war  that  they  could 
not  be  mobilized  promptly  when  the  hour  of 
danger  came.  Despite  the  plottings  of  Secretary 
Toucey,  however,  the  vessels  of  the  Navy  were  so 
dispersed  that  the  Confederacy  was  unable  to 
seize  many  of  them.  This  was  most  fortunate, 
since  it  made  possible  the  prompt  establishment 
of  a  Federal  blockade  over  important  Atlantic  and 
Gulf  ports. 

Legal  business  took  me  to  Washington  about 
four  months  after  Lincoln's  first  inauguration  and 
I  called  at  the  White  House,  in  company  with  Mr. 
Fen  ton.  Although  a  score  of  men  were  present 
in  the  different  parts  of  the  large  room  overlooking 


STRESS   AND    STRAIN 

the  South  lot,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  walking  the  floor 
in  a  preoccupied  manner,  evidently  deeply  dis 
tressed. 

The  Federal  troops  had  just  been  defeated  at 
Big  Bethel  by  a  much  smaller  force  under  Ma- 
gruder,  a  crushing  blow  for  the  Union  arms. 

I  suggested  to  Mr.  Fenton  that  we  should  retire, 
as  the  visit  seemed  inopportune,  but  the  Presi 
dent's  grave  face  showed  signs  of  recognition  when 
he  saw  Mr.  Fenton.  He  stopped,  and  as  we 
approached  him,  he  said: 

"The  storm  is  upon  us;  it  will  be  much  worse 
before  it  is  better.  I  suppose  there  was  a  divine 
purpose  in  thrusting  this  terrible  responsibility 
upon  me,  and  I  can  only  hope  for  more  than 
human  guidance.  I  am  only  a  mortal  in  the 
hands  of  destiny.  I  am  ready  for  the  trial  and 
shall  do  my  best,  because  I  know  I  am  acting  for 
the  right." 

He  did  not  mention  the  defeat  that  had  occurred 
only  two  days  before,  but  it  was  evident  that  he 
comprehended  fully  the  desperate  situation  that 
confronted  the  Federal  Government. 

Big  Bethel  was  within  ten  miles  of  Fortress 
Monroe,  and  I  subsequently  learned  from  a 
member  of  the  Cabinet  that  the  utmost  anxiety 
existed  regarding  the  safety  of  that  post.  If 
treachery  existed  among  its  officers,  the  secret 
has  been  kept  until  this  day,  but  one  can  under- 

57 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

stand  the  agonizing  suspense  of  that  hour.  Had 
the  great  fortress  at  Old  Point  Comfort  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  the  Confederacy,  the  early  part  of 
the  war  would  necessarily  have  been  fought  upon 
entirely  different  lines. 

Mr.  Lincoln  possessed  no  knowledge  of  the  art 
of  war,  but  he  had  sufficient  intuitive  foresight  to 
comprehend  what  the  loss  of  control  of  the  en 
trance  to  Chesapeake  Bay  and  the  mouth  of  the 
James  River  would  mean.  Although  he  said  so 
little,  this  meeting  and  the  few  words  he  used 
were  most  impressive,  and  are  stamped  deep  upon 
my  memory. 

As  I  have  just  remarked,  military  and  naval 
technicalities  did  not  matter  much  to  Lincoln, 
and  he  was  accustomed  to  brush  them  aside  in  his 
familiar,  humorous  way.  When  Mr.  Bushnell 
brought  to  Washington  the  plans  for  the  Monitor, 
the  recent  invention  of  Mr.  Ericsson,  which  became 
famous  in  the  sea-fight  with  the  rebel  Merrimac, 
most  of  the  naval  officers  expressed  doubts  as  to 
the  efficiency  of  the  Monitor  in  a  naval  fight.  Mr. 
Lincoln's  opinion  was  asked.  He  said  he  knew 
little  about  ships,  but  he  "did  understand  a  flat- 
boat,  and  this  invention  was  flat  enough." 

Later,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Army  board,  when 
asked  by  Admiral  Smith  what  he  thought  of  the 
Monitor,  he  remarked,  with  his  most  quizzical 
look,  "Well,  I  feel  a  good  deal  about  it  as  a  fat 

$8 


STRESS    AND    STRAIN 

girl  did  when  she  put  her  foot  in  her  stocking; 
she  thought  there  was  something  in  it." 

All  present  laughed  at  this  drollery,  but  it  was 
the  way  Lincoln  sometimes  took  of  conveying  a 
really  serious  thought. 

At  that  period  of  the  war  and  until  the  battle  of 
Gettysburg,  two  years  later,  Southern  leaders 
acted  upon  the  theory  that  the  people  of  the 
North  were  greatly  divided  in  their  sympathies, 
and  that  the  "Copperheads"  would  either  devel 
op  sufficient  strength  to  stop  the  war;  or,  in  the 
event  of  invasion  of  the  Northern  States,  they 
would  take  up  arms  in  support  of  the  Confederacy. 
John  Morgan's  raid  into  Ohio  encouraged  that 
belief,  although  he  was  captured  and  imprisoned; 
but  the  utter  indifference  shown  by  the  Pennsyl 
vania  "Copperheads,"  who  had  talked  loudest  in 
favor  of  the  Southern  cause,  completely  disillu 
sioned  the  Confederate  chiefs.  Vallandigham  and 
Voorhees  were  shown  to  be  without  great  influ 
ence.  I  had  a  direct  statement  from  a  member  of 
the  Lincoln  Cabinet  that  the  President  did  not 
approve  of  Vallandigham's  arrest  by  General 
Burnside,  or  his  trial  by  court-martial  and  ban 
ishment  to  the  Southern  lines.  Lincoln  declared 
the  proceedings  to  be  those  of  an  over-zealous 
general. 

Defeat  after  defeat  of  the  Northern  forces  fol 
lowed  that  of  Big  Bethel.  The  raw  volunteers 

59 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

from  the  Northern  States  could  not  successfully 
oppose  the  better-trained  Southern  troops,  led  by 
West  Point  graduates. 

Mr.  Lincoln  never  lost  heart;  his  courage  never 
abated  during  those  terrible  months,  while  many 
men  close  to  him  were  in  a  mental  condition  of 
dismay  and  panic. 

The  day  of  Burnside's  defeat  at  Fredericksburg 
Lincoln  spent  hours  in  the  office  of  the  War 
Department  in  dressing-gown  and  slippers,  for 
getting  even  to  eat.  When  he  heard  of  the  great 
disaster  he  bowed  his  head  in  despair,  and  mur 
mured,  "If  there  is  any  man  out  of  perdition  who 
suffers  more  than  I  do,  I  pity  him." 

Sufficient  credit  was  never  given  to  Thurlow 
Weed  for  his  successful  efforts  in  England  to  pre 
vent  recognition  of  the  Confederacy.  Mr.  Lincoln 
described  Weed  as  "a  master  of  masters  in  poli 
tics,"  and  sent  him  on  that  difficult  mission  late 
in  1861  when  the  situation  looked  very  dark.  Our 
able  minister  at  the  court  of  St.  James's,  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  possessed  Mr.  Lincoln's  entire  con 
fidence,  but  the  President  deemed  it  advisable  to 
have  a  special  commissioner  to  present  his  protest 
against  the  apprehended  British  recognition  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy. 

The  day  before  Mr.  Weed's  departure  I  met  him 
in  the  rotunda  of  the  old  Astor  House,  and  found 
him  imbued  with  more  hope  than  I  felt,  regarding 

60 


STRESS   AND    STRAIN 

the  conflict  with  the  South.  Of  course,  he  made 
no  mention  of  his  intended  mission  to  England, 
thinking  that  he  could  get  away  without  the  fact 
becoming  known.  He  was  disappointed,  however, 
as  the  day  following  his  departure  all  the  news 
papers  published  the  news  of  his  special  embassy. 
There  were  no  Atlantic  cables  in  those  days,  and 
by  prompt  action  on  his  arrival  he  managed  to 
hold  his  first  interview  with  Lord  Russell  before 
official  information  reached  the  British  Cabinet 
from  Washington  regarding  the  purpose  of  his 
presence  in  London. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  also  visited  England  at 
Mr.  Lincoln's  request,  possibly  at  the  suggestion 
of  John  Bright,  who  was  almost  the  only  promi 
nent  Briton  who  remained  friendly  to  the  Federal 
cause.  Gladstone,  Palmerston,  and  Disraeli  were 
at  that  time  in  open  sympathy  with  the  Con 
federacy. 

Mr.  Beecher's  mission  was  wholly  unofficial,  and 
his  efforts  were  devoted  to  delivering  addresses, 
such  as  only  he  could  make,  throughout  England. 
These  speeches  and  Mr.  Weed's  efforts  created 
such  a  wave  of  popular  sentiment  in  behalf  of 
the  Federal  cause  that  the  British  Cabinet,  if  ever 
it  had  the  purpose,  was  deterred  from  recog 
nizing  the  States  in  rebellion.  It  was  the  same 
kind  of  moral  suasion  employed  by  Gladstone 
prior  to  the  Russo-Turkish  War  of  1877-78,  and 

61 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

which  prevented  England  from  going  to  the  de 
fense  of  Turkey,  then  her  ally. 

The  relief  experienced  through  General  Lee's 
defeat  at  Gettysburg  and  his  retreat  across  Mary 
land  into  Virginia  was  followed,  ten  days  later 
(July,  1863),  by  the  draft  riots  in  New  York. 

The  horrors  of  those  three  days  have  never  been 
fully  described. 

Led  and  encouraged  by  Southern  sympathizers, 
who  had  retained  the  feelings  they  held  before  the 
war,  the  rabble  of  the  city  surged  through  the 
streets,  destroying  property,  burning  a  negro 
orphan-asylum,  and  killing  black  men.  Nomi 
nally  a  protest  against  enforced  enlistment,  the 
riots  were  really  an  uprising  of  the  dangerous 
element  that  existed  in  the  city  at  the  time. 

I  lived  in  Thirty-fourth  Street,  near  Eighth 
Avenue,  and  had  been  a  persistent  speaker  against 
the  extension  of  slavery  and  in  favor  of  the 
Federal  cause.  The  day  before  the  riots  began,  an 
anonymous  note  was  received  by  my  family, 
stating  that  our  home  would  be  attacked  and  that 
we  had  best  leave  the  city.  We  did  not  heed  the 
warning. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  riots,  July  13,  1863,  a 
crowd  gathered  in  front  of  my  house,  shouting: 
"Down  with  the  abolitionists!"  "Death  to  Dit- 
tenhoefer!"  I  sent  a  messenger  for  the  police,  and 
a  squad  arrived  as  the  leaders  of  the  mob  were 

62 


STRESS    AND    STRAIN 

preparing  to  break  in  my  door.  Active  club  work 
dispersed  the  crowd,  and  by  order  of  the  captain 
of  the  precinct  several  policemen  were  kept  on 
guard  until  the  end  of  the  riots. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  I  met  Mrs.  Carson,  the 
daughter  of  the  only  Union  man  in  South  Caro 
lina,  who,  with  her  father,  was  compelled,  after 
the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter,  to  leave  South  Carolina, 
while  his  property  was  confiscated.  I  had  been 
anxious  to  sell  my  house  in  Thirty-fourth  Street. 
Noticing  a  "For  Sale"  sign  on  the  property,  Mrs. 
Carson  called  on  me  and  expressed  a  willingness 
to  buy  the  house  at  the  price  named,  asking  me  to 
see  Samuel  Blatchford,  who  in  later  years  became 
a  Supreme  Court  Judge  of  the  United  States,  and 
who,  she  said,  was  the  head  of  an  association  rais 
ing  funds  for  her  support  in  New  York.  I  saw 
Judge  Blatchford,  and  a  contract  was  signed  for 
the  sale.  Later,  in  consequence  of  the  serious  ill 
ness  of  my  wife,  I  was  obliged  to  ask  Judge  Blatch 
ford  to  cancel  the  contract,  saying  that,  by  way  of 
making  up  for  the  disappointment,  I  would  gladly 
contribute  a  sum  of  money  to  the  fund  for  Mrs. 
Carson.  The  contract  was  accordingly  canceled. 
I  never  saw  Mrs.  Carson  afterward.  About  a  year 
before  the  close  of  the  rebellion,  Mr.  Lincoln  of 
fered  to  appoint  me  judge  of  the  district  court  of 
South  Carolina,  my  native  State,  but  my  increas 
ing  business  in  the  city  of  New  York  and  the 

63 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

disinclination  of  my  wife  to  move  to  South  Caro 
lina  compelled  me  to  decline  the  honor. 

A  little  while  before  the  offer  of  the  Carolina 
judgeship  was  made  me  by  the  President  I  re 
ceived  a  letter  signed  by  Mrs.  Carson,  in  which 
the  writer  said  that  the  President  had  asked  her 
to  recommend  a  man  for  the  position,  and,  remem 
bering  what  I  had  done  years  before,  she  had 
suggested  my  name  to  him.  For  a  long  time  I 
could  not  think  who  Mrs.  Carson  could  be,  until 
my  wife  reminded  me  of  the  incident  of  the  sale 
of  the  house. 

Patriotic  neglect  of  self-interest  in  behalf  of  the 
salvation  of  the  Union  caused  thousands  of 
Northerners  to  lose  opportunities  for  accumulat 
ing  wealth  from  the  vast  sums  of  money  disbursed 
by  the  Government;  but  there  was  a  class  at  home 
and  in  Congress  that  neglected  no  chance  to  en 
rich  itself.  Its  leaders  were  more  concerned  about 
the  commercial  phase  of  the  conflict  than  the 
triumph  of  the  Federal  arms. 

They  gambled  on  the  destiny  of  the  Republic, 
and  their  sources  of  information  reached  to  the 
innermost  sanctuaries  of  Government  depart 
ments. 

On  advance  information  of  a  staggering  defeat 
to  the  Northern  arms,  they  bought  gold  for  a  rise. 
Early  news  of  a  Federal  victory  caused  them  to 
sell  the  precious  metal  for  a  decline.  This  transac- 

64 


STRESS   AND    STRAIN 

tion  was  described  by  these  gamblers  in  the 
nation's  life-blood  as  "coppering  old  Lincoln." 

This  detestable  clan  pushed  its  representatives 
into  the  very  councils  of  state,  asserting  its  right 
to  dictate  the  policy  of  the  country,  foreign  and 
domestic.  Its  members  were  as  intolerably  arro 
gant  as  if  they  had  amassed  their  wealth  by  the 
strictest  integrity. 

During  a  great  part  of  the  war  President  Lin 
coln,  unsuspected  by  him,  was  surrounded  by  a 
coterie  of  professional  heroes,  commercial  grafters, 
and  alleged  statesmen,  every  one  of  whom  was  in 
politics  for  personal  profit.  Many  "  shining  lights  " 
then  lauded  for  their  patriotism  have  long  since 
been  exposed  as  selfish  and  corrupt  egotists. 
Close  as  some  of  these  unworthy  persons  con 
trived  to  get  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  they  were  never 
able  to  besmirch  him  in  any  way. 

During  one  of  my  visits  to  the  White  House 
some  weeks  before  the  promulgation  of  the  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation,  I  had  the  temerity  to  refer 
to  the  oft-reported  plan  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  before  the 
rebellion  burst  upon  the  country,  to  free  the 
Southern  slaves  by  purchase.  It  was  a  theme 
that  had  often  engaged  my  thoughts.  After  the 
beginning  of  the  war  and  a  realization  that  the 
conflict  was  costing  more  than  $1,000,000  per  day, 
I  had  become  somewhat  reconciled  to  the  idea. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  slow  to  answer,  saying,  in 

5  65 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

effect,  that  however  wise  the  idea  might  have 
been,  it  was  too  late  to  revive  it.  He  did  not  in 
timate  that  he  had  in  contemplation  the  Emanci 
pation  Proclamation  which  was  to  take  effect 
January  1,  1863. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  all  the  figures  about  slave 
property  at  his  finger-ends,  but,  much  to  my 
regret,  I  did  not  make  a  memorandum  of  the  in 
terview  and,  therefore,  cannot  recall  the  exact 
number  of  slaves  that  he  estimated  would  have  to 
be  purchased.  Field  hands  were  valued  at  from  six 
hundred  to  one  thousand  dollars  each,  but  the 
old  men  and  women  and  young  children  would 
reduce  the  average  price.  This  would  have  ab 
sorbed  $500,000,000,  a  sum  that,  prior  to  the  ex 
perience  of  one  year's  war  expenditure,  would 
have  appeared  staggering.  When,  however,  Mr, 
Lincoln  called  attention  to  the  rapidly  growing 
national  debt,  with  no  prospect  of  ending  the  con 
flict  for  years  to  come,  he  exclaimed: 

"What  a  splendid  investment  it  would  have 
been!" 

These  words,  as  the  mentally  distressed  Lincoln 
uttered  them  in  that  dark  hour  of  the  Civil  War, 
were  of  thrilling  import.  He  rose  to  his  full 
height;  my  eyes  instinctively  traced  his  majestic 
length  from  his  slippers  to  his  head  of  iron-gray 
hair,  and  there  was  an  expression  of  sadness  in  his 
face  that  I  never  shall  forget. 

66 


STRESS   AND    STRAIN 

Referring  to  the  severe  criticisms  that  were 
launched  against  him  respecting  the  views  he 
entertained  about  the  reconstruction  of  the  Union, 
he  said: 

"I  do  the  best  I  can,  and  I  mean  to  keep  doing 
so  until  the  end.  If  the  end  brings  me  out  all 
right,  what  is  said  against  me  won't  amount  to 
anything.  If  the  end  brings  me  out  wrong,  ten 
angels  swearing  I  was  right  would  make  no 
difference." 

The  entrance  of  a  delegation  prevented  a  con 
tinuance  of  the  conversation.  Years  afterward, 
Col.  A.  K.  McClure  told  me  that  as  late  as  August, 
prior  to  the  November  elections  of  1864,  President 
Lincoln  had  recurred  to  his  plan  for  freeing  the 
negroes  by  purchase,  and  settling  the  war  on  the 
basis  of  universal  extinction  of  slavery  in  all 
States  o£  the  Union  at  an  expense  of  $400,000,000, 
a  compromise  which  he  believed  the  Southern 
leaders,  in  their  hopeless  condition  after  the  battle 
of  Gettysburg,  would  be  glad  to  accept.  Mr. 
Lincoln  went  on  to  predict  that  the  promulgation 
of  such  a  scheme  at  that  time  would  defeat  his  re 
election.  McClure  not  only  confirmed  him  in  that 
opinion,  but  added  that  Congress  was  in  no 
mood  to  appropriate  so  large  a  sum  of  money. 

Redemption  of  these  bonds,  if  the  Union  was 
restored  after  the  war,  would  fall  in  part  on  the 
Southern  people;  they  would  be  paying  out  of 

67 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

their  own  pockets  for  the  liberation  of  their 
slaves.  This  statement  of  McClure's  is  remark 
able  because  it  indicates  that  Lincoln  believed  that 
the  status  quo  ante  bellum  could  be  restored  and 
reconstruction  formalities  avoided.  Unfortunately, 
under  Andrew  Johnson,  who  succeeded  to  the 
Presidency  after  Lincoln's  assassination,  and  sub 
sequently  under  President  Hayes,  the  "carpet 
bag"  regime,  with  all  its  horrors  and  corruption, 
was  inflicted  upon  the  Southern  States. 

Colonel  McClure's  judgment  was  keen  and 
accurate.  Congress,  led  by  Senator  Sumner  and 
Representatives  Thaddeus  Stevens  and  Henry 
Winter  Davis,  would  have  repudiated  such  a 
proposition  if  made  by  Lincoln.  Even  after  his 
re-election  he  could  not  have  secured  the  money 
for  that  purpose. 

Mr.  Carpenter,  who  made  the  famous  painting 
of  the  Cabinet  when  Mr.  Lincoln  read  the  draft 
of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and  who  was 
a  client  of  mine,  told  me  Mr.  Lincoln  had  said  to 
him  that  for  a  long  time  he  had  been  considering 
the  necessity  of  eventually  issuing  the  Proclama 
tion;  but  that  he  was  held  back  by  the  intense 
desire  that  was  always  in  his  mind  to  restore  the 
Union,  and  his  fear  that  if  he  proclaimed  eman 
cipation  prematurely  the  restoration  of  the  Union 
would  be  prevented.  During  his  entire  adminis 
tration  and  in  all  his  addresses  this  desire  to  re- 

68 


STRESS   AND   STRAIN 

store  the  Union  was  supreme  and  it  controlled  his 
every  action. 

On  the  momentous  occasion  when  Lincoln  read 
the  preliminary  draft  of  his  Emancipation  Proc 
lamation  before  his  Cabinet,  he  amused  himself 
and  the  others — with  the  exception  of  Secretary 
Stanton,  who  was  plainly  amazed  at  the  Presi 
dent's  seeming  levity — by  first  reading  to  them 
from  Artemas  Ward's  amusing  story  of  "The  High- 
Handed  Outrage  at  Utica." 

Later  on  I  remember  having  been  present  when 
Lincoln  said,  "If  my  name  is  ever  remembered 
it  will  be  for  this  act;  my  whole  soul  is  in  it." 

It  is  curious,  the  thing  we  call  history.  An  act 
popularly  regarded  as  madness  at  one  period  is 
hailed  as  concrete  wisdom  at  another.  History 
is  only  a  crystallization  of  popular  beliefs. 

Many  people  very  close  to  Lincoln  have  doubted 
his  sympathy  for  the  slaves,  and  have  referred  to 
his  frequent  characterization  of  abolitionists  as 
"a  disturbing  element  in  the  nation,  that  ought 
to  be  subjected  to  some  sort  of  control."  They 
assert  that  his  efforts  were  directed  solely  to  re 
straining  the  ambitions  of  the  slaveholders  to 
extend  their  system  of  human  bondage  over  larger 
areas  of  the  United  States. 

Such  judgment  of  Lincoln  is  at  variance  with 
my  personal  observations  and  does  him  a  grave 
injustice.  His  nature  was  essentially  sympathetic, 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

although  he  never  went  the  length  of  asserting 
that  he  regarded  the  black  man  as  his  social  equal. 

Subsequent  observation  has  shown  me  that  the 
immediate  admission  of  the  liberated  slaves  to 
equal  rights  of  franchise  was  an  error. 

It  revived  the  former  bitterness  with  which  the 
Southern  people  had  regarded  the1  Northerners, 
and  imposed  a  grievous  injustice  upon  them,  an 
injustice  naturally  and  forcibly  resented.  And  so 
followed  the  formation  of  the  "Invisible  Empire" 
and  the  excesses  of  the  "  Ku-Klux  Klan." 


VIII 

THE  EENOMINATION 

fTlHE  renomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  1864  was 
A  not  accomplished  with  ease.  The  difficulties 
did  not  all  show  upon  the  surface,  because  some 
of  the  President's  closest  associates  were  secretly 
conspiring  against  him.  Open  and  frank  oppo 
sition  came  from  such  influential  Republicans  as 
Henry  Winter  Davis,  of  Maryland,  Benjamin  F. 
Wade,  of  Ohio,  and  Horace  Greeley,  of  New  York, 
who  believed  his  re-election  impossible.  But  the 
opposition  of  Salmon  P.  Chase,  of  Ohio,  was 
secret,  as  he  had  been  scheming  for  the  nomina 
tion  himself.  Chase,  while  regarding  himself  as 
Mr.  Lincoln's  friend  and  constantly  protesting  his 
friendship  to  the  President,  held  a  condescending 
opinion  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  intellect.  He  could  not 
believe  the  people  so  blind  as  to  prefer  Abraham 
Lincoln  to  Salmon  Chase.  He  vigorously  pro 
tested,  both  verbally  and  in  letters  written  to 
every  part  of  the  country,  his  indifference  to  the 
Presidency,  at  the  same  time  painting  pessimistic- 

71 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

ally  the  dreadful  state  of  government  affairs,  and 
indicating,  not  always  subtly,  his  willingness  to 
accept  the  nomination. 

As  to  Chase's  candidacy,  Lincoln  once  said, 
according  to  Nicolay:  "I  have  determined  to  shut 
my  eyes  as  far  as  possible  to  everything  of  the 
sort.  Mr.  Chase  makes  a  good  secretary  and  I 
shall  keep  him  where  he  is."  Then  with  charac 
teristic  magnanimity,  he  added:  "If  Chase  be 
comes  President,  all  right.  I  hope  we  may  never 
have  a  worse  man."  But  as  Joseph  Medill,  editor 
of  the  Chicago  Tribune ,  wrote  in  December,  1863 : 

I  presume  it  is  true  that  Mr.  Chase's  friends  are  making 
for  his  nomination,  but  it  is  all  lost  labor;  Old  Abe  has  the 
inside  track  so  completely  that  he  will  be  nominated  by 
acclamation  when  the  convention  meets. 

A  reference  here  to  the  activities  of  Chase's 
brilliant  daughter,  Kate  Chase  Sprague,  in  the 
Tilden  and  Hayes  contest  many  years  later,  may 
be  pardoned.  It  is  well  known  that  through  her 
potent  influence  the  contest  was  finally  decided 
in  favor  of  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  and  against 
Samuel  J.  Tilden.  This  influence,  it  has  been 
said,  was  used  in  a  spirit  of  revenge  against  Mr. 
Tilden  for  defeating  her  father  for  the  Democratic 
nomination  in  1868.  Col.  A.  K.  McClure  agrees 
with  me  in  this,  as  will  be  shown  by  the  follow 
ing  quotation  from  his  book,  Our  Presidents  and 
How  We  Make  Them: 

72 


THE    RENOMINATION 

The  Democratic  National  Convention  met  in  New  York 
on  the  4th  of  July,  1868.  There  was  a  strong  sentiment 
among  the  delegates  favorable  to  the  nomination  of  a  lib 
eral  Republican  for  President,  but  Chief -Justice  Chase,  who 
was  an  old-time  Democrat  and  who  had  won  a  very  large 
measure  of  Democratic  confidence  by  his  ruling  in  the  im 
peachment  case  of  President  Johnson,  was  a  favorite  with  a 
very  powerful  circle  of  friends  who  had  quietly,  but  very 
thoroughly,  as  they  believed,  organized  to  have  him  nomi 
nated  by  a  spontaneous  tidal  wave  after  a  protracted  dead 
lock  between  the  leading  candidates.  Chase  would  have 
been  nominated  at  the  time  Seymour  was  chosen,  and  in  like 
manner,  had  it  not  been  for  the  carefully  laid  plan  of  Samuel 
J.  Tilden  to  prevent  the  success  of  Chase.  Tilden  was  a 
master  leader,  subtle  as  he  was  able,  and  he  thoroughly 
organized  the  plan  to  nominate  Seymour,  not  so  much  that 
he  desired  Seymour,  but  because  he  was  implacable  in  his 
hostility  to  Chase. 

It  was  well  known  by  Chase  and  his  friends  that  Tilden 
crucified  Chase  in  the  Democratic  convention  of  1868,  and 
this  act  of  Tilden's  had  an  impressive  sequel  eight  years  later 
when  the  election  of  Tilden  hung  in  the  balance  in  the  Sen 
ate,  and  when  Kate  Chase  Sprague,  the  accomplished 
daughter  of  Chase,  decided  the  battle  against  Tilden. 

While  Charles  Sumner  was  openly  for  Lincoln, 
he  privately  criticized  him,  even  after  the  pro 
mulgation  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
which  had  freed  the  slaves  of  the  South. 

I  have  always  believed  that  Lincoln  did  not 
consult  with  Sumner  as  to  that  message,  and  that 
that  was  the  cause  of  his  ill-feeling.  Thaddeus 
Stevens,  the  great  Free  Soil  representative  of 

73 


HOW  WE  ELECTED  LINCOLN 

Pennsylvania,  was  dissatisfied  because  the  Presi 
dent  was  unwilling  to  confiscate  all  the  property  of 
the  secessionists  and  to  inflict  other  punishments 
upon  them:  he  was  openly  hostile  to  Lincoln. 

For  the  following  hitherto  unpublished  letter, 
from  Horace  Greeley  to  Mark  Howard,  a  promi 
nent  Connecticut  Republican,  I  am  indebted  to 
the  latter's  daughter,  Mrs.  Graves.  It  throws 
an  interesting  light  upon  the  fears  and  uncer 
tainties  of  the  period,  and  indicates  Greeley 's 
lack  of  confidence  in  Lincoln  as  the  strong  man 
of  the  nation.  The  letter  is  dated  ten  months 
before  the  second  election,  and  Greeley's  op 
position  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  renomination  became 
the  more  undisguised  and  intense  as  time  went 

on.  **!»**      •  • 

OFFICE  OF  THE  TRIBUNE. 

NEW  YORK,  Jan.  10, 1864. 

DEAR  SIR, — I  mean  to  keep  the  Presidency  in  the  back 
ground  until  we  see  whether  we  cannot  close  up  the  war. 
I  am  terribly  afraid  of  letting  the  war  run  into  the  next 
Presidential  term;  I  fear  it  will  prove  disastrous  to  go  to 
the  ballot-boxes  with  the  war  still  pending.  Let  us  have 
peace  first,  then  we  can  see  into  the  future. 

Yours, 

HORACE  GREELEY. 
MARK  HOWARD,  ESQ., 
Hartford,  Conn. 

Horace  Greeley  gave  open  expression  to  his 
opposition  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  Friday, 
April  29,  1864. 

74 


THE    RENOMINATION 

In  this  issue  Mr.  Greeley,  referring  to  the 
statement  of  the  President,  "I  claim  not  to  have 
controlled  events,  but  confess  plainly  that  events 
have  controlled  me,"  declared  that  "had  he  been 
a  little  more  docile  to  their  teaching  and  prompt 
to  apprehend  their  bearing  we  should  have  been 
saved  many  disasters  and  rivers  of  precious  blood. 
May  we  hope  that  with  regard  to  the  murder  of 
our  soldiers  who  have  surrendered,  and  other 
questions  of  the  hour,  he  will  have  learned  some 
thing  from  the  sore  experience  of  the  past?" 

Other  newspapers  joined  the  Tribune  in  oppos 
ing  Lincoln's  renomination,  as  witness  these  ex 
cerpts  from  the  New  York  Herald,  August  6, 1864: 

Senator  Wade,  of  Ohio,  and  Representative  Davis,  of 
Maryland,  Chairman  of  the  Senate  and  House  Committees  on 
the  rebellious  States  prepared  and  presented  in  their  official 
capacity  an  indictment  against  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  ex 
ecutive  head  of  the  nation,  and  the  nominee  of  his  party  for 
another  term  of  office,  charging  him  with  arrogance,  igno 
rance,  usurpation,  knavery,  and  a  host  of  other  deadly  sins 
including  that  of  hostility  to  the  rights  of  humanity  and  to 
the  principles  of  republican  government. 

Mr.  Lincoln  has  been  frequently  represented  as  entertain 
ing  and  expressing  an  ardent  wish  that  he  could  slip  off  his 
shoulders  the  anxieties  and  labors  belonging  to  his  present 
position  and  place  upon  them  the  musket  and  knapsack  of  a 
Union  volunteer.  The  opportunity  of  realizing  that  wish 
now  presents  itself.  The  country  would  be  overjoyed  to 
see  it  realized,  and  all  the  people  would  say  "Amen"  to  it. 
Let  him  make  up  his  mind  to  join  the  quota  which  his  town 

75 


HOW   WE   ELECTED   LINCOLN 

of  Springfield,  111.,  will  next  be  called  on  to  furnish.  He  is 
said  to  have  done  well  as  railsplitter,  and  we  have  no  doubt 
that  he  will  do  equally  well  as  a  soldier.  As  a  President  of  the 
United  States  he  must  have  sense  enough  to  see  and  ac 
knowledge  he  has  been  an  egregious  failure.  The  best  thing 
he  can  do  now  for  himself,  his  party,  and  his  country  is  to 
retire  from  the  high  position  to  which,  in  an  evil  hour,  he 
was  exalted. 

One  thing  must  be  self-evident  to  him,  and  that  is  that 
under  no  circumstances  can  he  hope  to  be  the  next  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  if  he  will  only  make  a  virtue  of 
necessity  and  withdraw  from  the  Presidential  campaign  .  .  . 

In  the  New  York  Tribune,  August  24,  1864,  un 
der  the  heading,  "Copperhead  Treason,"  the  Daily 
News  is  quoted  as  referring  to  President  Lincoln 
as  "our  intriguing  chief  magistrate." 

Finally,  there  was  general  disaffection,  center 
ing  largely  in  New  York  and  St.  Louis,  and  a  so- 
called  convention  of  opponents  of  Lincoln  gathered 
at  Cleveland  in  May,  and  indulged  in  denuncia 
tion  of  Lincoln,  which  included  a  bitter  letter  from 
Wendell  Phillips.  This  self-styled  "radical  De 
mocracy  "  adopted  a  platform,  nominated  Fremont, 
and  practically  disappeared. 

The  patriotic  and  self-sacrificing  people  of  the 
North  were  almost  a  unit  in  sustaining  President 
Lincoln,  and,  by  sheer  force  of  numbers,  swept 
aside  the  ungrateful  or  designing  Republican 
leaders  who  would  have  defeated  the  great 

emancipator, 

76 


THE   RENOMINATION 

During  the  days  that  immediately  preceded  his 
renomination,  Mr.  Lincoln  gave  way  to  despond 
ency,  and,  although  he  never  said  so  in  words,  one 
could  clearly  see  by  the  anxiety  he  manifested 
that  he  was  sorely  perplexed  to  account  for  the 
animus  of  certain  men  against  him.  He  appeared 
to  be  especially  anxious  about  New  York,  and  to 
fear  that  the  enmity  of  Seward's  old  friends  and 
the  hostility  of  Mr.  Greeley  might  cause  him  to 
lose  the  delegation  from  the  Empire  State.  I  was 
in  Washington  at  that  time  on  professional  busi 
ness,  and  was  able  to  impart  to  him  positive 
information  regarding  his  strength  in  various  parts 
of  the  State.  To  his  inquiry  about  the  situation 
in  New  York,  I  told  him  that,  while  Greeley  was 
still  in  the  sulks,  yet  I  thought  Seward  and  Weed 
were  coming  around  to  him  (Lincoln)  handsomely, 
and  that  their  action  would  undoubtedly  influence 
the  Seward  partisans.  I  added  that  in  my  opinion 
Greeley  would  before  long  forget  his  disappoint 
ment  and  fall  into  line.  Mr.  Lincoln  listened  at 
tentively  and  nodded  assent.  "  That's  good  news," 
he  said,  heartily,  seemingly  well  pleased  with  my 
prognostications. 

Col.  A.  K.  McClure,  of  Pennsylvania,  stood 
very  close  to  the  President  at  this  time  and  did 
not  disguise  from  him  the  treachery  of  several 
Republican  leaders. 

Anxiety   had  become  an  obsession   with  the 

77 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

President.  This  seemed  due  to  a  physical  and 
mental  reaction  after  three  years  of  incessant 
worry  and  strain.  And  yet  at  this  hour  General 
Grant  appeared  to  be  smashing  his  way  through 
the  Wilderness,  toward  Richmond;  General  Sher 
man  had  left  Chattanooga  on  his  march  to  the 
sea  by  which  the  Confederacy  was  cut  in  two; 
the  dashing  Sheridan  was  harassing  the  enemy  in 
the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  the  collapse  of  the 
rebellion  was  foreshadowed. 

I  am  sure  Mr.  Lincoln  cared  but  little  for  his 
own  political  future,  but  he  was  most  desirous  of 
carrying  out  his  plans  regarding  reconstruction, 
and  the  frankness  with  which  he  had  spoken  his 
views  on  the  subject  made  enemies  of  such  men 
as  Greeley,  Sumner,  and  Stevens.  Had  he  dis 
sembled,  concealing  his  sympathies  for  the  suffer 
ing  civilian  population  in  the  South  who  had  taken 
no  active  part  in  the  rebellion,  until  such  time  as 
he  could  properly  lay  his  plans  before  Congress  and 
explain  them,  hostility  against  him  would  have 
been  confined  to  a  few  politicians  actuated  by 
envy  or  personal  ambition. 

But  Mr.  Lincoln  made  no  secret  of  his  desire 
for  the  prompt  reorganization  of  the  seceded 
States,  immediately  peace  was  attained;  and  for 
their  readmission  into  the  Union,  with  represen 
tation  in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  thus  carrying 
out  the  thought  always  uppermost  in  his  mind  of 

78 


THE    RENOMINATION 

the  restoration  of  the  Union.  And  yet  his  sorrows, 
worriments,  and  perplexities  could  not  drown  his 
sense  of  humor,  as  the  following  occurrence  shows : 

A  conference  was  held  on  shipboard  in  Hamp 
ton  Roads  about  the  time  that  the  collapse  of  the 
Confederacy  seemed  imminent,  the  consultants  in 
cluding  the  Vice-President  of  the  Confederacy, 
Alexander  H.  Stevens,  and  R.  M.  T.  Hunter  and 
J.  A.  Campbell,  on  the  one  side,  and  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  Mr.  Seward  on  the  other. 

Mr.  Hunter,  to  enforce  his  contentions,  referred 
to  the  correspondence  between  Charles  the  First, 
of  England,  and  Parliament. 

"Mr.  Lincoln's  face,"  it  is  reported,  "wore  the 
inscrutable  expression  which  generally  preceded 
his  hardest  hits,"  as  he  replied:  "Upon  questions 
of  history  I  must  refer  you  to  Mr.  Seward,  for  he 
is  posted  in  such  things,  and  I  do  not  profess  to 
be;  my  only  distinct  recollection  of  the  matter  is 
that  Charles  lost  his  head." 

Under  the  reconstruction  policy  planned  by  the 
great  President  and  carried  out  by  his  successor, 
President  Johnson,  the  rebel  States  were  taken 
back  in  the  Union  with  the  same  representation 
in  Congress  they  had  before  they  started  on  the 
war  of  secession. 

To  obviate  the  danger  which  would  arise  from 
the  control  of  the  Southern  States  by  the  unre 
pentant  rebels,  and  to  minimize  the  danger  that 

79 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

might  result  from  the  large  number  of  members 
they  would  have  in  Congress,  it  was  deemed  nec 
essary  to  give  the  illiterate  and  shiftless  negroes, 
just  emerging  from  slavery,  and  who  constituted  a 
majority  of  the  voters  in  many  of  the  Southern 
States,  the  right  to  vote. 

This  resulted  in  the  detestable  State  govern 
ments  composed  of  negroes  and  "carpet-bag" 
whites,  no  less  corrupt  than  the  negroes.  The 
whites  were  called  "carpet-baggers,"  because  they 
came  from  the  North,  with  no  intention  of  re 
maining  permanently;  they  only  wanted  to  ex 
ploit  the  South  for  their  own  profit;  and  they 
generally  traveled  in  light  marching  order,  with 
all  their  worldly  possessions  packed  in  the  familiar 
carpet-bag  of  the  period. 

Sumner,  Stevens,  and  Winter  Davis  opposed 
this  reconstruction  policy,  contending  that  the 
rebel  States  should  be  held  as  conquered  territory 
until  a  new  generation  should  arrive  on  the  scene. 

I  did  not  hesitate  to  say  at  the  time  that  they 
were  right.  Had  their  policy  been  adopted  the 
terrible  evils  of  the  "carpet-bag"  governments 
would  have  been  avoided. 

In  the  last  conversation  I  had  with  Mr.  Lincoln 
on  the  subject  of  his  renomination,  about  ten 
days  before  the  convention  of  1864,  I  tried  to 
convince  him  that  his  doubts  and  fears  were  un 
warranted,  but  I  did  not  succeed  in  lightening  the 

80 


THE    RENOMINATION 

gloom.  He  probably  thought  me  too  young  a 
man  to  form  an  accurate  opinion,  but  I  had  in 
vestigated  for  myself,  as  well  as  advised  with  the 
best-informed  Republicans  in  my  State.  It 
seemed  as  though  he  could  not  forget  that  previous 
miraculous  nomination  by  a  convention  in  which 
two-thirds  of  the  delegates  favored  another  can 
didate;  he  feared  lest  now  the  boot  might  be  on 
the  other  leg. 

The  Republican  National  Convention  assembled 
at  Baltimore  on  June  7,  1864,  the  aged  Rev.  Dr. 
Robert  J.  Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky,  being  tem 
porary  chairman,  and  ex-Governor  William  Den- 
nison,  of  Ohio,  permanent  presiding  officer. 

All  opposition  melted  away  when  the  platform 
was  read  and  adopted.  The  third  plank  therein 
denounced  "slavery  as  the  cause  of  the  rebellion, 
always  and  everywhere  hostile  to  principles  of 
republican  government;  therefore,  national  safety 
demands  its  utter  and  complete  extirpation  from 
the  soil  of  the  Republic." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  renominated  on  the  first 
ballot,  receiving  the  unanimous  vote  of  every 
State,  with  the  exception  of  Missouri,  the  del 
egation  from  which  State  was  instructed  for  Gen 
eral  Grant.  The  Missouri  vote  was  at  once 
changed  to  Lincoln,  making  the  nomination 
unanimous. 

At  that  convention  I  circulated  among  the  rep- 

6  81 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

resentatives  from  other  States,  and  overheard 
many  mutterings  of  dissatisfaction  at  the  inevi 
tability  of  the  choice,  but  not  a  hostile  word  was 
spoken  from  the  rostrum.  I  joined  with  delegates 
from  my  State  in  addressing  a  message  of  con 
gratulation  to  Mr.  Lincoln  at  Washington. 

Greeley,  of  course,  was  obliged  to  come  around 
to  support  Lincoln's  re-election,  but  he  could  not 
refrain  from  damning  him  with  faint  praise. 

Under  the  caption  of  "Opening  the  Presidential 
Campaign,"  Mr.  Greeley,  in  the  Tribune  of  Feb 
ruary  23,  1864,  thus  indicated  his  change  of  front 
toward  Mr.  Lincoln: 

He  has  been  patriotic,  honest,  and  faithful.  He  has  done 
his  utmost  to  serve  and  save  the  country.  .  .  .  He  is  not 
infallible,  not  a  genius,  not  one  of  those  rare,  great  men 
who  mould  their  age  into  the  similitude  of  their  own  high 
character,  massive  abilities,  and  lofty  aims.  But,  consider 
ing  his  antecedents  and  his  experience  of  public  affairs  we 
are  sure  the  verdict  of  history  in  his  case  will  be  "well  done, 
thou  good  and  faithful  servant."  The  luster  of  his  good 
deeds  will  far  outlive  the  memory  of  his  mistakes  and  faufts. 

Perhaps  Greeley  stood  too  close  to  his  subject, 
but  surely  these  condescending  words  may  be 
considered  a  masterpiece  of  ineptitude. 

Nor  was  Mr.  Greeley  averse  to  reprinting  hos 
tile  criticisms  from  outside  sources,  as  the  following 
excerpts  will  witness: 

In  the  New  York  Tribune,  June  21,  1864,  under 

82 


THE    RENOMINATION 

the  heading,  "Rebel  Views  of  our  Nomination — 
A  Railsplitter  and  a  Tailor,"  the  Richmond  Ex- 
aminer  is  quoted  as  saying: 

The  Convention  of  Black  Republicans  in  Baltimore  have 
nominated  for  President  of  their  country  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  Illinois  railsplitter. 

The  great  army  of  contractors  and  office-holders — in 
short,  those  who  live  by  war  and  on  the  country — have 
succeeded,  at  least,  in  starting  Lincoln  fairly  for  another 
race.  It  amounts  to  a  declaration  that  those  conventioners 
desire  to  see  four  years  more  in  all  respects  like  unto  the 
last  four  years. 

Another  extract  from  the  Richmond  Examiner 
also  appears  in  the  Tribune  at  about  the  same 
date: 

The  only  merit  we  can  discover  in  this  Baltimore  ticket  is 
the  merit  of  consistency;  it  is  all  of  a  piece;  the  tail  does  not 
shame  the  head,  nor  the  head  shame  the  tail.  A  railsplitting 
buffoon  and  a  boorish  tailor,  both  from  the  backwoods.  Both 
growing  up  in  uncouth  ignorance,  they  would  afford  a  gro 
tesque  subject  for  a  satiric  poet. 

I  had  known  from  the  President's  own  lips,  at 
my  last  interview,  that  he  desired  the  selection  of 
Andrew  Johnson,  a  Tennessean,  whose  steadfast 
support  of  the  Federal  cause  in  these  troublesome 
times  had  attracted  attention.  I  was  not  in  sym 
pathy  with  that  plan,  because  I  thought  that 
Johnson  would  cost  the  party  many  votes  among 
the  radicals  in  New  England. 

83 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

Nobody  could  forecast  at  that  time  with  reason 
able  certainty  the  Democratic  candidates,  and 
there  was  considerable  fear  that  General  Grant 
might  be  named.  He  was  popularly  believed  to 
be  bringing  the  rebellion  to  an  early  finish;  if  he 
succeeded  in  forcing  the  capitulation  of  General 
Lee  before  the  Democratic  convention  met  in 
Chicago  at  the  end  of  August,  the  opposition  party 
might  seize  upon  him  and  could  probably  elect 
him.  Grant  had  been  an  old-line  Democrat  and, 
so  far  as  known,  had  voted  for  Douglas  in  1860. 
There  was  no  political  reason  why  Grant  could 
not  accept  such  a  nomination. 

In  June,  General  McClellan's  name  had  not 
been  seriously  considered.  He  was  a  man  with  a 
grievance,  for  he  had  been  removed  from  the 
command  of  the  Federal  Army  after  a  long  en 
durance  of  his  procrastinating  policy  by  the  ad 
ministration.  The  universal  affection  felt  for 
McClellan  throughout  the  Northern  Army,  es 
pecially  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  seems  difficult 
of  explanation. 


IX 

THE  CAMPAIGN  OF   1864 

r  I  iHE  campaign  for  the  Republican  ticket  began 
JL  before  the  name  of  the  Democratic  candidate 
was  known.  Speakers  were  haranguing  the  people 
in  every  Northern  State,  but  if  Mr.  Lincoln's 
doubts  about  his  renomination  had  been  serious, 
his  fear  of  defeat  at  the  polls  developed  into  a 
veritable  mental  panic.  Both  Nicolay  and  Gideon 
Welles  refer  to  the  following  note,  which,  in 
dorsed  on  the  back  by  all  the  Cabinet  members, 
was  sealed  and  committed  to  the  keeping  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  with  instructions  that  it 
should  not  be  opened  until  after  election.  I  be 
lieve  that  the  original  has  been  presented  by  Miss 
Nicolay  to  the  Library  of  Congress: 

This  morning,  as  for  some  days  past,  it  seemed  improbable 
that  this  administration  will  be  re-elected.  Then  it  will  be 
my  duty  to  co-operate  with  the  President-elect  so  as  to  save 
the  Union  between  the  election  and  the  inauguration,  as 
my  successor  will  have  secured  his  election  on  such  grounds 
that  he  cannot  possibly  save  it  afterwards. 

August  23, 1864.  A.  LINCOLN. 

85 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  remarkable  document 
bears  date  six  days  before  the  assembling  of  the 
Democratic  convention  at  Chicago,  on  August  29. 
At  that  time  Mr.  Lincoln  was  aware  of  the  plan 
to  nominate  McClellan,  and  feared  his  strength. 

In  the  interval  between  the  Republican  con 
vention,  early  in  June,  and  the  gathering  of  the 
Democrats  at  the  end  of  August,  the  progress  of 
the  Federal  arms  had  not  realized  expectations. 
Grant  had  not  taken  Richmond,  and  Sherman  had 
not  administered  a  decisive  blow  to  General 
Johnson. 

Politically,  the  situation  was  somewhat  more 
hopeful.  The  selection  of  Andrew  Johnson  as  Vice- 
President  on  the  Republican  ticket  had  conciliated 
many  Northern  Democrats  like  Judge  Holt,  Gen 
eral  Dix,  and  General  Butler;  moreover,  it  had 
prevented  recognition  of  the  Confederacy  by 
France  and  England.  Lincoln's  foresight  in  sub 
stituting  the  Tennessean  for  Hannibal  Hamlin,  of 
Maine,  was  generally  admitted. 

McClellan  developed  more  strength  than  was 
suspected.  The  best  opinion  is  that,  had  the  elec 
tion  occurred  directly  after  his  nomination  and 
before  people  had  had  opportunity  to  study  the 
platform  upon  which  he  had  consented  to  stand,  he 
would  have  been  successful.  Soon  after  the  Demo 
cratic  convention  adjourned,  however,  the  cap 
ture  of  Atlanta  by  Sherman  was  announced;  then 

86 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1864 

followed  the  sturdy  blows  of  Grant  at  the  Confed 
erate  capital  and  Sheridan's  series  of  victories 
in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  These  happy  events 
completely  changed  the  political  attitude  of  the 
country. 

The  Democratic  managers  at  Chicago  had  com 
mitted  the  execrable  blunder  of  declaring  in  their 
platform  that  the  war  had  been  a  failure  and  that 
the  public  welfare  demanded  "an  immediate  effort 
be  made  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities,  with  a  view 
to  an  ultimate  convention  of  all  the  States." 

Little  more  than  two  months  remained  before 
election  day  in  November,  and  every  speaker  that 
could  be  commandeered  was  put  into  active 
service.  Lincoln  himself  took  no  active  part  in 
the  campaign  outside  of  a  few  addresses  to  sol 
diers,  but  mass-meetings  were  held  every  day  and 
night  of  the  week,  and  popular  preachers  with 
Republican  sympathies  filled  their  discourses  with 
appeals  in  behalf  of  Lincoln  and  the  necessity  of 
his  re-election  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  became  a  tower  of  strength 
to  the  Lincoln  cause,  and  in  and  out  of  Plymouth 
pulpit  he  advocated  the  duty  of  sustaining  the 
administration  that  had  already  saved  the  Union 
and  must  ultimately  put  down  the  rebellion.  I 
addressed  meetings  every  night. 

The  campaign  soon  became  one  of  great  acri 
mony  on  both  sides.  Night  and  day,  without 

87 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

cessation,  young  men  like  myself,  in  halls,  upon 
street  corners,  and  from  cart-tails,  were  harang 
uing,  pleading,  sermonizing,  orating,  arguing,  ex 
tolling  our  cause  and  our  candidate,  and  denounc 
ing  our  opponents.  A  deal  of  oratory,  elocution, 
rhetoric,  declamation,  and  eloquence  was  hurled 
into  the  troubled  air  by  speakers  on  both  sides. 

Denunciation  of  Lincoln  by  Democratic  spell 
binders  was  of  the  bitterest  character.  News 
papers  affiliated  with  the  anti-war  party  criticized 
every  act  of  the  administration  and  belittled  the 
conduct  of  the  war  by  Federal  generals  in  the  field. 
Therefore,  Republican  speakers  did  not  mince 
words  in  criticism  of  the  Democratic  Presidential 
candidate,  Gen.  George  B.  McClellan. 

On  September  27,  five  weeks  before  election 
day,  I  spoke  to  an  audience  that  filled  every  seat 
in  Cooper  Institute,  on  the  questions  of  the  hour. 
Read  in  the  calmness  of  to-day  my  language  ap 
pears  unwarrantedly  aggressive,  but  at  that  time 
it  seemed  conservative.  As  an  example  of  the 
spirit  of  the  campaign  I  venture  to  quote  a  few 
extracts: 

The  battle  that  will  be  fought  in  November  between  the 
Union  and  the  Confederate  forces  north  of  the  Potomac  will 
end  in  the  destruction  or  exhaustion  of  the  Southern  Confed 
eracy.  Abraham  Lincoln  is  the  commander  of  the  Union 
forces.  I  will  now  prove  that  George  B.  McClellan  is  the 
leader  of  the  Confederate  forces. 

88 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1864 

While  at  the  head  of  the  Army,  McClellan  attempted  to 
dictate  to  President  Lincoln  a  policy  acceptable  to  the 
Confederate  South.  Every  man  in  the  North  influenced  by 
"Copperheads,"  who  opposed  the  war,  demanded  that  this 
"fighting  general"  be  replaced  at  the  head  of  our  armies. 
He  had  become  harnessed  to  the  slave  power,  and  he,  with 
General  Pendleton,  candidate  for  Vice-President,  became 
the  incarnation  of  the  Democratic  peace  platform. 

McClellan's  nomination  was  received  with  enthusiasm  and 
cheers  by  the  Confederate  soldiers;  the  Southern  newspapers 
declared  that  McClellan's  election  would  be  helped  by 
Grant's  defeat  in  the  field.  Confederate  bonds  advanced  on 
the  announcement  of  McClellan's  nomination.  Every 
Southern  sympathizer  in  the  North,  passive  or  active  in  his 
devotion  to  Jefferson  Davis,  will  vote  for  McClellan. 

He  says  in  his  letter  of  acceptance  that  his  sentiments  are 
identical  with  those  of  the  platform  which  pronounced  the 
war  a  failure,  and  he  promised,  if  the  Democratic  candidate 
were  elected,  an  immediate  cessation  of  hostilities. 

I  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  such  men  as 
Fernando  Wood,  Vallandigham,  and  Horatio  Sey 
mour,  once  Governor  of  New  York,  supported 
McClellan,  thus  indorsing  the  letter  of  accept 
ance,  in  which  he  promises  to  enforce  the  policy 
set  forth  in  the  peace  platform  of  his  party. 

McClellan's  military  career,  consistent  with  his  whole 
history,  may  be  summed  up  in  one  word — "delay" — which 
gave  to  the  Confederacy  what  it  needed — time.  Is  it  not 
then  true  that  McClellan  heads,  in  this  campaign,  the  Con 
federate  forces  North? 

I  then  read  the  following  excerpt  from  the 
Democratic  platform: 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

Resolved,  that  this  Convention  does  explicitly  declare,  as 
the  sense  of  the  American  people,  that  after  four  years  of 
failure  to  restore  the  Union  by  the  experiment  of  war  during 
which,  under  the  pretense  of  a  military  necessity  for  a  war- 
power  higher  than  the  Constitution,  the  Constitution  itself 
has  been  disregarded  in  every  part;  and  public  liberty  and 
private  right  alike  trodden  down,  and  the  material  prosperity 
of  the  country  essentially  impaired,  justice,  humanity,  liberty, 
and  the  public  welfare  demand  that  immediate  efforts  be 
made  for  the  cessation  of  hostilities,  with  a  view  to  the 
ultimate  convention  of  the  States  or  other  peaceful  means,  to 
the  end  that  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment  peace  may 
be  restored  on  the  basis  of  Federal  Union  of  the  States. 
Resolved,  that  the  direct  interference  of  the  military  author 
ities  of  the  United  States  in  the  recent  elections  held  in 
Kentucky,  Maryland,  Missouri,  and  Delaware  was  a  shame 
ful  violation  of  the  Constitution  and  a  repetition  of  such  acts 
in  the  approaching  election  will  be  held  as  revolutionary  and 
resisted  with  all  the  means  and  power  under  our  control. 

In  other  words  [I  resumed],  it  was  a  bold  and  pernicious 
declaration  of  hostilities  that  war  should  close  at  once  and 
that  a  convention  should  be  called  at  a  later  period,  to  revise 
the  Constitution.  But  it  is  easy  to  comprehend  that  when 
such  a  convention  should  be  called,  Jefferson  Davis  would 
refuse  to  enter  its  doors,  and  be  prepared  to  enforce  his 
refusal. 

Jefferson  Davis,  his  resources  crippled  and  with  his  last 
levies  on  the  firing-line,  is  naturally  anxious  that  Lincoln 
be  defeated,  for  he  knows,  by  this  time,  that  with  Lincoln 
as  President  the  Confederacy  will  be  compelled  to  abandon 
a  hopeless  contest.  Davis  cannot,  and  will  not,  continue 
the  fight  if  Lincoln  is  re-elected,  notwithstanding  his  threat 
to  "fight  to  the  last  ditch." 

90 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1864 

Lincoln's  re-election  will  banish  all  hope  of  triumph  for 
the  Confederacy.  A  firm  and  everlasting  peace  will  follow, 
based  upon  a  reconstructed  Union  and  freedom  everywhere. 
The  American  Union,  strong,  powerful,  and  freed  from 
slavery,  will  be  honored  the  world  over. 

"  Be  it  storm,  or  summer  weather, 

Peaceful  calm  or  battle  jar, 
Stand  in  beauteous  strength  together, 
Sister  States  as  once  ye  were.'* 

Large  sums  of  money  were  expended  in  expen 
sive  printing  during  that  campaign.  Some  of  the 
publications  were  elaborately  designed  and  illus 
trated.  Recently  one  of  the  Lincoln  and  Johnson 
posters  has  been  presented  to  me,  and  the  minia 
ture  reproduction  on  the  following  page  should 
be  of  interest. 

The  names  of  the  electors  for  the  State  of  New 
York  include  that  of  the  writer.  The  poster  is 
printed  in  several  colors,  it  is  five  feet  high  and 
three  and  one-half  feet  wide.  It  is  in  a  perfect 
state  of  preservation. 

As  I  have  indicated,  the  victories  of  Sheridan 
and  Sherman  produced  a  revulsion  against  peace 
sentiment  throughout  the  North  that  literally 
swamped  McClellan.  The  popular  vote  was 
large,  Lincoln  securing  2,213,665  votes,  and  Mc 
Clellan  1,802,237  votes.  Except  among  the  troops 
from  Pennsylvania  and  Kentucky,  the  soldier 
vote  was  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  Lincoln. 
This  was  a  surprise. 

91 


^^^^sm^m^m^m^^mm^^i^^ 

Union  Nominations 


n-Bfe  K&  GfctlKh.  gST  if 


JOHNSON. 


REUBEN  E.  FENTONI 


_  FOH  tlEUTEWA^TT  GOVEPJ3JOK. 

THOMAS  G.  JJLVOHB. 

-  »M«  J«art  O»inntH«ionor,  •  For  Duwcto.  ot  purte  rrUona.  ? 

FRABKLIM  A,  ALBEBCEH       BAV1D  V.  FOBBEST 


JOHN  W.  FARHH3l. 

• 


m 

^iB^    -^H*- ••••••  WB  WW    •        1MB     •^•••••^••WHBiaHHBMBVIf        V 

1/m  iTMILLIKEH.  I  JAMES  E  THOailPSbM.  . 

!  LOUIS  NAUMANN    EDWADftntUr'uHCs'w.'RANHf.  AUIANDCR  W1UER    X 

K»  CUT  iv DOM.  |  ro«  scraRvu>o3  ::•:•' / 

Orlando  LStewart  I  Andreas  WillmanJi 

i 


THE   CAMPAIGN   OF    1864 

It  is  interesting  to  illustrate  the  growth  of  our 
country  by  a  comparison  with  the  popular  vote  of 
1912  when  Wilson  received  6,291,776  votes,  Taft 
3,481,119,  and  Roosevelt  4,106,247. 

Of  the  electoral  votes,  Lincoln  received  212,  and 
McClellan  only  21.  Until  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Taft 
by  Woodrow  Wilson  in  1912,  this  was  a  record  of 
defeat.  In  the  latter  year  Mr.  Wilson  received 
435  votes,  Mr.  Taft  15,  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  81. 

The  electoral  ticket  for  Lincoln  having  been 
successful  in  New  York  State,  the  thirty-three 
electors,  of  whom  I  was  one,  met  at  Albany  and 
cast  the  votes  of  the  State  for  Abraham  Lincoln 
and  Andrew  Johnson. 

The  ballots  were  inscribed  on  wooden  blocks, 
and  read  as  follows: 

President,  Abraham  Lincoln 
and  underneath,  in  brackets, 

[Abram  J.  Dittenhoefer]  Elector 

A  few  weeks  later  I  took  one  of  these  wooden 
block  ballots  with  me  to  Washington  and  showed 
it  to  the  President.  He  asked  me  if  I  would  not 
give  it  to  him  as  a  souvenir,  which  I  was  very  glad 
to  do. 

Horace  Greeley  and  Preston  King  were  the  two 
electors -at -large.  Although  Greeley  had  vio 
lently  opposed  the  renomination  of  Lincoln,  wise 

93 


HOW    WE    ELECTED    LINCOLN 

counsels  put  him  at  the  head  of  the  Presidential 
electors,  a  compliment  that  Mr.  Greeley  told  me 
highly  gratified  him,  in  view  of  his  previous  atti 
tude  toward  the  President. 

When  Mr.  Greeley  became  the  Democratic  can 
didate  for  President  in  1872  and  many  Repub 
licans  seceded  from  the  Republican  party,  Mr. 
Greeley  requested  me  to  act  as  chairman  of  the 
executive  committee  of  the  Liberal  Republican 
Central  Committee  in  New  York  City,  and  I 
consented  to  do  so.  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  who 
also  identified  himself  with  the  Liberal  Republi 
can  organization,  became  the  candidate  of  the 
party  for  Secretary  of  State  of  New  York.  I  after 
ward  regretted  that  I  had  joined  in  that  move 
ment,  and  my  regret  was  intensified  when  Greeley 's 
campaign  turned  out  to  be  so  great  a  fiasco. 

Lincoln's  assassination,  April  12,  1865,  thwarted 
the  generous,  noble-hearted  plans  which  he  had 
devised  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union,  and  re 
sulted  in  imposing  upon  the  Southern  people  by 
Andrew  Johnson,  Lincoln's  successor,  the  corrupt 
"carpet-bag"  regime. 

Lincoln's  place  in  the  history  of  civilization  is 
immutably  fixed.  During  the  last  ten  years  of  his 
career,  he  was  the  greatest  of  all  living  men.  As 
statesman  and  reformer  he  belongs  not  alone  to 
America,  but  to  the  whole  world. 

George  Washington  established  this  Republic, 

94 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1864 

but  the  curse  of  human  slavery  adhered  to  the 
otherwise  splendid  Government  he  was  so  largely 
instrumental  in  creating. 

Abraham  Lincoln  eradicated  this  curse. 

Halleck's  verse  comes  back  to  me  again  as  I 
close  these  recollections: 

One  of  the  few,  the  immortal  names 
That  were  not  born  to  die! 


THE  END 


OVERDUE. 

- 

NOV  23JW6 


'      NOV  13  1954  tU 


LD21-100m-7,'39(402s 


342891 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


